Shihāb al-Dīn Suhrawardī is one of the most well known, innovative, yet controversial Persian philosophers of the history of philosophy in Iran. He was executed in 1191 at the age of thirty-six by the express command of King Saladin, most probably for his illuminationist political doctrine. This doctrine is Platonist in principle, and is based on Fārābī's structure of the ideal republic, commonly known as the "Virtuous City," in which justice is achieved based on the enlightened rule of the inspired philosopher-sage. Later Shī'a scholastic political thought draws heavily on Suhrawardī's illuminationist political doctrine.

Suhrawardī authored nearly fifty works, many of them devoted to the systematic refinement and...