Neoplatonism and the Islamic Tradition

Saturday, December 3rd 2022
14:00 – 17:00 GMT
The October Gallery, London, UK

Seminar led by Stefan Sperl

Comparative Reflexions in the Light of Ennead VI 9

The longing to ascend to celestial spheres is as old as humankind. It surfaces in myths and legends throughout the world. In the Eastern Mediterranean, it inspired the philosophers of Antiquity. Foremost among them was Plato, who saw ascent by means of self-purification as a pathway for the human soul to return to its source in the realm of divinity. Building on Plato’s ideas six centuries later, the Egyptian philosopher Plotinus identified that divine source as ‘the One’: an ineffable singularity from which all multiplicity derives and to which it aims to revert.

The teachings of Plotinus and his followers, known today as ‘Neoplatonism’, became the dominant philosophy of Late Antiquity. Christian, Jewish and Muslim thinkers found aspects of it compatible with their monotheist creeds. Neoplatonism therefore represents a common heritage shared by the cultures which arose out of the three monotheist religions. Its legacy bridges the divide between East and West, North and South.

The degree to which the Islamic tradition bears the imprint of Neoplatonism has long been a subject of debate. This presentation examines the question by recourse to one of the more accessible works by the founding father of Neoplatonism, Plotinus’s Ennead VI 9.

The main purpose will be to compare several salient themes in the Ennead VI 9 with selected parallels in Arabic sources such as the Qur’an, classical poetry and Sufi compendia. Key topics to be discussed include unity and multiplicity, this world and the next, the trajectory of the soul, the role of the intellect and the meaning of beauty and love. The presentation concludes by reflecting on whether the two traditions might be seen as evolutionary stages in a single continuum.

Stefan Sperl is Emeritus Professor of Arabic and Middle Eastern Studies at SOAS (School of Oriental and African Studies), London. In 2005 he embarked on a research project with Ahmed Moustafa which resulted in their joint publication, The Cosmic Script: Sacred Geometry and the Science of Arabic Penmanship (2014).  It won the Iran World Award for the Book of the Year in 2016. Among his most recent publications are: Faces of the Infinite: Neoplatonism and Poetry at the Confluence of Africa, Asia and Europe (2022, edited with Yorgos Dedes) and the website, Lyrics of Ascent: Poetry and the Platonic Tradition, An Anthology.