Sirâj al-Dîn al-Urmawî (d. 1283) as a “Philosopher”: An Analysis of His Latâ’if al-hikma

Best known as a jurist of the Shâfiî school and a scholar of Logic, Sirâj al-Dîn al-Urmawî lived much of his life in Ayyubid-era Cairo before moving to Konya (in 655/1257), where he served as the “Chief Kâdî” for the rest of his life. He was also an important figure within the “mutaakhkhirîn”-era Islamic thought, whose fundamental phisolophical framework had been established by Fakhr al-Dîn al-Râzî (d. 606/1210), after Avicenna (d. 428/1037) and al-Ghazâlî (d. 505/1111). Philosophically, al-Urmawî was known to have been influenced by two particular figures: his mentor Kamâl al-Dîn ibn Yûnus (d. 639/1241), and his colleague and friend Afdal al-Dîn al-Hûnajî (d. 646/1249). An important work to resort to for understanding Urmawi’s philosophical views is his Latâ’if al-hikma, which he wrote in Persian and dedicated to the Anatolian-Seljukid Sultan Izz al-Dîn Kaykâvus II (r. 1246-1257). Written in a complementary manner to Fakhr al-Dîn al-Râzî’s incomplete al-Latâif al-ghiyâthiyya, this book also contains autobiographical information about the author. Though the book consists of two main parts, including “theoretical wisdom” and “practical wisdom,” it represents a new genre that is a kind of “mixture” of philosophy and theology (kalâm). This article examines al-Urmawî’s philosophical views in the context of the intellectual tradition that he inherited and with a focus on his Latâ’if al-hikma. M. Cüneyt KAYA

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