Abstract

The essay deals with the relationship between the Islamic philosophy and Hellenism. The influence of the Neoplatonic ideas on the early Islamic culture of spirituality is emphasized, while trying to reveal the common archetypal patterns of the Near Eastern and Mediterranean traditions.

Highlights

  • The essay deals with the relationship between the Islamic philosophy and Hellenism

  • Arabic 'ilm was understood as episteme, methodos, theoria, epignosis, theorema, philosophia; and 'ilm Allah was treated as dianoia theou

  • For Muslims Muhammad is 'a torch which illumines'. He is the initial paradigm of the Light metaphysics and of Nur muhammadi which irradiates itself as the light of knowledge - phos gnoseos

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Summary

The Alexandrian Maze of Gnosis

For many centuries the 'holy city' of Alexandria[10] had a reputation as the meeting place of Hellenism and the Oriental as well as Egyptian traditions and was regarded as the seat of universal learning and athanor for the alchemical fusion. As a vehicle for the expression of the hieratic doctrines they used a bewildering maze of mythology, while in Islam, according to Nasr, 'the intellective symbolism often becomes mathematical'll. According to Nasr, in Islam, the Pythagorean doctrines were 'stabilized and restored almost according to their original pattern through the unitary religious idea', Most likely they were transmitted through the so-called Neopythagoreans such as Nicomachus of Gerasa. The so-called Oriental Neopythagoreanism, along with the clear-cut geometry of Neoplatonic metaphysics and Perypathetic formalism, is partly responsible for the rise and development of Islamic art

The Survival of Hellenic Philosophy into the Arab Times
Sabians and NeopJatonists in Harran
Traditional Cosmology as a Symbol and Metaphor
Algis Uždavinys
Full Text
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