Introduction
In, An Introduction to Islamic Philosophy (1999), University of Kentucky Philosophy Professor Oliver Leaman, focuses mainly on the two schools of Islamic philosophical thought that he believes are often overlooked by philosophers in the western world. These schools are the Sufi, also known as the mystical, school; and the Ishraqi, also known as the illuminationist, school. He thinks that ? even though the Islamic philosophical movements emanating from the Peripatetic and Greek traditions are more important to the whole of Islamic studies ? if these aforementioned schools were to be overlooked it would be doing a great injustice to the study of Islamic philosophy.
The first two chapters of the text focus primarily on the history and roots of Islamic philosophy, and on the major controversies surrounding the study of Islamic Philosophy. In the first chapter Leaman writes, "Islamic philosophers, like philosophers everywhere, wrote in ways which they hopped would resonate with their local intellectual communities?." The author is speaking to the fact that ? as the Islamic empire expanded into areas of the Middle East that were richly saturated with the traditions of Greek culture and learning ? Muslim thinkers began to be exposed to other schools of philosophical thought. This caused early Muslim scholars to begin adapting what they could from Greek and other traditions to make further progress in their own philosophical endeavors. After explaining the birth of the Islamic philosophical tradition, the author continues by briefly documenting some of the most notable scholars of Islamic philosophy ? from the ?first Arab philosopher' Al-Kindi to the major thinkers of today, such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr.
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