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Philosophy
Arabic falsafah. Muslim scholars integrated certain elements of Greek philosophy into Islamic perspectives, creating new schools of thought. Al-Kindi (d. 873 ) founded the early Peripatetic school, combining Aristotelian and Neoplatonic elements and attempting to harmonize faith and reason. The father of formal logic and Islamic political philosophy, al-Farabi (d. 950 ), synthesized Plato 's political philosophy and Islam. Ibn Sina 's ( Avicenna , d. 1037 ) stress on the distinction between necessary and contingent existents became central to Islamic thought and deeply influenced Judeo-Christian philosophy and theology. Major medieval theologians such as al-Ghazali (d. 1111 ) composed treatises against philosophy, thus curtailing rationalism, although he was refuted by the renowned Aristotelian philosopher Ibn Rushd ( Averroës , d. 1198 ). His influence in the West was greater than that in the Islamic world. Ibn Khaldun (d. 1406 ) established a philosophy of history. The twelfth through sixteenth centuries marked the ascendancy of philosophy in Persia, particularly hikmat al-ishraq (the wisdom of illumination), initiated by al-Suhrawardi (d. 1191 ) and culminating in the work of Sadr al-Din al-Shirazi ( Mulla Sadra , d. 1641 ). Philosophy continues to play an important role in Iranian intellectual life.
