Zayn al-Dīn Kāshī: The First Illuminationist Figure after Suhrawardī

In the history of Islamic Philosophy, Shahrzurī has been introduced as the first and perhaps most important commentator of Ḥikmat al-ishrāq and Suhrawardī’s school of philosophy. This could be correct provided that no philosopher had ever paid any particular attention to Illuminationist philosophy in the time interval between Suhrawardī and Shahrzurī. If we learn that Shahrzurī himself was influenced by another philosopher, we need to revise the common view in this regard. This philosopher was Zayn al-dīn Kāshī, the author of Ḥadā’iq al-ḥaqāyiq, who studied the teachings of Illuminationist philosophy prior to Shahrzurī. Suhrawardī’s influence over Kāshī, in addition to the order of the chapters in Ḥadā’iq al-ḥaqāyiq, is clearly visible particularly in an independent chapter on the types of light (nūr). This chapter is in fact a summary of all the discussions in Ḥikmat al-ishrāq. Through a study of the order of the discussed problems in Ḥadā’iq al-ḥaqāyiq and a comparative analysis of some of the chapters of the book, the present paper reveals that Zayn al-Dīn Kāshī paid attention to Suhrawardī’s philosophy before Shahrzurī. Therefore, he must have adopted this approach prior to Shahrzurī and must have been the first Illuminationist thinker after Suhrawardī.