Suhrawardi’s Background in Advocating Mentally-Positedness of Existence

Suhrawardi explicitly confirmed the “mentally-positedness of existence” in his most important works. He had correctly concluded the “external occurrence of existence to quiddity” from the works of Farabi and Ibn Sina and, while criticizing some of Ibn Sina’s words, had adduced several arguments for his own view. However, some contemporary scholars, when analyzing his standpoints, have ignored his background regarding the mentally-positedness of existence and introduced him as the first person who advocated this view. In the present paper, after a brief account of Farabi’s and Ibn Sina’s arguments concerning the relationship between existence and quiddity in possible things, the authors have analyzed Suhrawardi’s critical approach to this issue and then referred to three different sources for his belief in the mentally-positedness of existence. His hidden sources in this regard consist of some of the words of Bahmanyar and Omar Khayyam which he has quoted without citing the names of these two scholars in order to support his own arguments for the mentally-positedness of existence. His obvious source is a text written by Ibn Sahlan Sawi in al-Mashari’ wa’l-mutarihat. Since the philosophy section of Hakim Sawi’s book is not available, one cannot correctly judge the quality and quantity of the influence of above-mentioned thinkers on Suhrawardi. Nevertheless, available evidence demonstrates the certainty of his frequent adaptations of Bahmanyar’s works on the rejection of the “external objectivity of existence”.