School

Islamic philosophy

The philosophical tradition of the Islamic world, from al-Kindī and Ibn Sīnā to the illuminationists and Mullā Ṣadrā.

Also called Falsafa, Ḥikma

A school of Islam

Introduction

Islamic philosophy is the tradition of philosophical thought that grew up in the Islamic world from the ninth century. Its early name, falsafa, is borrowed from the Greek philosophia, and its first masters set out to understand and continue the work of Aristotle and the Neoplatonists, whose writings had been translated into Arabic. Later it was more often called ḥikma, “wisdom”.

Its central questions concern being and existence, the relation of God to the world, the intellect and the soul, prophecy, and the harmony of reason and revelation. The philosophers described God as the Necessary Existent, from whom all things proceed in an ordered chain, and the human goal as the perfection of the intellect in knowledge of God.

The tradition was never only rationalist. Ibn Sīnā ended his last major work with the stations of the mystics; Suhrawardī joined philosophy with illumination; and Mullā Ṣadrā wove philosophy, Sufi metaphysics and theology into a single wisdom.

History

Historical

In ninth-century Baghdad, under the ʿAbbāsid caliphs, translators rendered Greek philosophy into Arabic, and al-Kindī became the first “philosopher of the Arabs”. Al-Fārābī in the tenth century and Ibn Sīnā in the eleventh built comprehensive systems that would shape philosophy for centuries.

Al-Ghazālī’s Incoherence of the Philosophers attacked their teachings on the eternity of the world and God’s knowledge, and in Spain Ibn Rushd (Averroes) answered him in defence of Aristotle. Ibn Rushd’s commentaries had their greatest influence in Latin Europe. In the East, Suhrawardī founded the philosophy of illumination in the twelfth century, and philosophy merged increasingly with theology and Sufism.

In Safavid Iran, the “school of Isfahan” of Mīr Dāmād and his student Mullā Ṣadrā gave the tradition a new form, the “transcendent philosophy”, which is still taught in Iran today. In the twentieth century scholars such as Henry Corbin and Seyyed Hossein Nasr drew Western attention to this later tradition.

9th c.Translation of Greek philosophy in Baghdad; al-Kindī
10th c.Al-Fārābī
11th c.Ibn Sīnā’s The Healing and Pointers and Reminders
c. 1095Al-Ghazālī’s Incoherence of the Philosophers
1186Suhrawardī completes The Philosophy of Illumination
17th c.Mullā Ṣadrā and the school of Isfahan

Major thinkers

Key concepts

Important texts

Convergence and divergence

Resemblance and difference, given equal room. Each note is marked with the kind of statement it makes.

Areas of convergence

Emanation, with Neoplatonism
Historical
The Islamic philosophers inherited the Neoplatonic idea of an ordered procession of intellects from the One, partly through an Arabic paraphrase of Plotinus known as the Theology of Aristotle.

Areas of divergence

Knowledge, with Sufism
Historical
The philosophers sought God through the perfection of the intellect; many Sufis held that God is reached by love and tasting, not by reasoning, though later thinkers joined the two.

Cite this entry

Chicago (bibliography): “Islamic philosophy.” Tradition. The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society. Last modified November 7, 2026. https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islamic-philosophy.
Chicago (note): “Islamic philosophy,” tradition, The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, last modified November 7, 2026, https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islamic-philosophy.
MLA: “Islamic philosophy.” The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society, 7 Nov. 2026, www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islamic-philosophy.
BibTeX: @misc{traditions-islamic-philosophy, title = {{Islamic philosophy}}, howpublished = {The Library, Unitive Knowledge Society}, note = {Tradition. Last modified November 7, 2026}, year = {2026}, url = {https://www.unitiveknowledge.org/library/traditions/islamic-philosophy} }