The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardi and the Heritage of the Greeks.

• Author: McGinnis, Jon
• Position: Reviews of Books

In The Leaven of the Ancients: Suhrawardi and the Heritage of the Greeks. By JOHN WALBRIDGE. SUNY series in Islam. Albany: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS, 2000. Pp. xviii + 305.$26.95 (paper).

In The Leaven of the Ancients, John Walbridge traces various Greek philosophical traditions that influenced the founder of the anti-Aristotelian Illuminationist school of Islamic philosophy, Shihab ad-Din Yahia as-Suhrawardi. Walbridge's book will particularly interest the student of Suhrawardi and of later Islamic philosophy in general, especially since it presents new work that attempts to explain the origin of Suhrawardi's philosophy insofar as it is grounded in various Greek philosophers.

More broadly, the book should appeal to those interested in the dissemination and appropriation of the classical heritage, as well as those concerned with the history of philosophy in general. The classicist, however, should be warned that Walbridge's study is not a comprehensive account of ancient thought in the Islamic world; rather, it investigates only those aspects of Greek philosophy that affected Suhrawardi. Similarly, those concerned with the history of philosophy will not find a systematic and analytic account of Suhrawardi's thought, since Walbridge focuses on those features of Suhrawardi's philosophy that the Greek philosophical tradition influenced. Bearing these caveats in mind, the Islamicist, the classicist, and the general reader in the history of philosophy will find this book a valuable resource for understanding the influence of classical thought in Islam generally and specifically on Suhrawardi.

In broad strokes, Walbridge divides his work into three parts: "Suhrawardi as a Non-Peripatetic," "The Divine Philosophers," and "Aftermath." The first part provides an introduction and background to Walbridge's study; the second part, which takes up the lion's share of the text, investigates the various non-Aristotelian Greek philosophical systems that contributed to the thought of Suhrawardi; and the third part contains Walbridge's thoughts on the place of Islamic philosophy in history.

In the first chapter Walbridge poses the problems that he intends to solve. These are: (1) "Why did Subrawardi choose to reject the prevailing neo-Aristotelian synthesis in Islamic philosophy?" (2) "What was his knowledge and understanding of non-Aristotelian Greek philosophy?" (3) "Which ancient philosophers was he attempting to follow?" (4) "How are his specific...