Isagoge See PORPHYRY. Islamic Neoplatonism, a Neoplatonism constituting one of several philosophical tendencies adopted by Muslim philosophers. Aristotle was well known and thoroughly studied among those thinkers in the Islamic world specifically influenced by ancient Greek philosophy; Plato less so. In part both were understood in Neoplatonic terms. But, because the Enneads came to be labeled mistakenly the Theology of Aristotle, the name of ‘Plotinus’ had no significance. A similar situation befell the other ancient Neoplatonists. The Theology and other important sources of Neoplatonic thinking were, therefore, often seen as merely the ‘theological’ speculations of the two major Greek philosophical authorities – mainly Aristotle: all of this material being roughly equivalent to something Islamic Neoplatonists called the ‘divine Plato.’ For a few Islamic philosophers, moreover, such as the critically important al-Farabi, Neoplatonism had little impact. They followed a tradition of philosophical studies based solely on an accurate knowledge of Aristotle plus the political teachings of Plato without this ‘theology.’ In the works of less avowedly ‘philosophical’ thinkers, however, a collection of falsely labeled remnants of ancient Neoplatonism – bits of the Enneads, pieces of Proclus’s Elements of Theology (notably the Arabic version of the famous Liber de causis), and various pseudo-epigraphic doxographies full of Neoplatonic ideas – gave rise to a true Islamic Neoplatonism.
This development followed two distinct paths. The first and more direct route encompassed a number of tenth-century authors who were attracted to Neoplatonic theories about God’s or the One’s complete and ineffable transcendence, about intellect’s unity and universality, and about soul as a hypostatic substance having continual existence in a universal as well as a particular being, the latter being the individual human soul. These doctrines held appeal as much for their religious as for their philosophical utility. A second form of Neoplatonism arose in the intellectual elements of Islamic mysticism, i.e., Sufism. There, the influence of Plotinus’s concept of the ecstatic confrontation and ultimate union with the One found a clear, although unacknowledged, echo. In later periods, too, the ‘divine Plato’ enjoyed a revival of importance via a number of influential philosophers, such as Suhrawardi of Aleppo (twelfth century) and Mulla Fadra (seventeenth century), who were interested in escaping the narrow restrictions of Peripatetic thought.
See also ARABIC PHILOSOPHY , NEOPLATON- ISM , SUFIS. P.E.W.