Paths to Enlightenment: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149-1210) and the Salvatory Knowledge of Islamic Philosophy

FAIN: FT-286225-22

Nora Jacobsen Ben Hammed
Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY 12504-9800)

Research and writing one chapter of a book on Islamic philosopher Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (1149-1210).

My book project provides powerful evidence for the continued life of Islamic philosophy through a systematic analysis of the Muslim philosophical theologian Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's (d. 1210) views on the nature of the human being, knowledge, and the cosmos. I posit that al-Razi's early engagement with the occult and a steady interest in Avicennian philosophy produced a conversion to what he conceived of as a kind of perennial transcendental philosophy that finds fullest expression in Islam. I also consider al-Razi’s role in the evolution of Illuminationist philosophy, a school of mystical-philosophical thought that is currently solely traced to the philosopher Suhrawardi al-Maqtul (d. 1191). Lastly, I reflect on the ramifications of the disconnect between modern secular notions of knowledge and those of al-Razi's time, including the dismissal of alternative forms of philosophical engagement as well as the devaluation of non-secular understandings of the human and knowledge formation.