Customer Reviews

The Philosophy of Illumination

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This is a really fascinating book, albeit a difficult one, from a very unusual thinker. I'm absolutely delighted -- and more than a bit surprised -- that Brigham Young University Press has launched this series of translations, because we in the West know so very little about Islam and Islamic civilization. I recommend this volume to anybody interested in Islam, Islamic philosophy, mysticism, medieval history, or even Platonism.

This is a magnificient effort. Dr Ziai's efforts with this and his other translations are very generous and clear. This is a major work by an important medieval philosopher. Although I'm not a specialist in Persian or Islamic thought this book gives me confidence that the textual terminology is translated in all its richness and specific rigor. This is a good book for the general reader of philosophy and stands apart from so much new age rubbish written about Sufism. The book is handsomely produced, beautifully designed, and very reasonably priced. I think anyone thinking of the future and with a wit to buying important editions of major philosophical texts shouldn't think twice about acquiring it. This is also a good book for students of the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, for reasons that will be clear upon reading it.

The translators of this important Work do almost everything in their power to demythologize and empiricist this works mystical and visionary thrust with Aristotelian bias. Still because we have Corbin's commentary we can read against this bias and not let the academics bamboozle us.

I have not finished the book yet, but Mulla Sadra's writings have opened my further and removed a few more veils from my understanding.