ABSTRACT
Suhraward⁄ s≠f⁄ texts in the thirteenth century, like other s≠f⁄ texts, illustrate the way ideas were argued and used to structure the lives of s≠f⁄s. Written s≠f⁄ treatises are more than a lifetime of compiled ideas because within these ideas there are complex individual and collective relationships between fixed or unfixed ideas. Generally, ideas not only reflect beliefs and how these beliefs affect worldviews, but they reflect experiences of continuous changes and define or refine themselves as compared to generations. Putting forth one’s ideas is a way of connecting to past thinkers or ideological systems or what Karl Mannheim referred to as “a common location in the social and historical process in creating a particular worldview or mentality.”1 This point is true for s≠f⁄ shaikhs, like Shaikh al-Suhraward⁄: testing his ideas with past figures was part of a process of locating himself within what was known or understood. Examining his s≠f⁄ beliefs further highlights how his ideas were associated with a specific social group, in this case the Suhraward⁄yya order. Analyzing the subtext of his ideas offers the opportunity to learn about the role al-Suhraward⁄’s s≠f⁄ beliefs played in forming the s≠f⁄ order.
