Dear Colleagues,
The Faculty of Theology at Sivas Cumhuriyet University and the Faculty of Humanities at Istanbul Medeniyet University collaborates for this international symposium on the life and works of Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 710/1311), a polymath who is an important figure in the history of philosophy and science in the Islamic-Turkic civilization.
Al-Shīrāzī was born in Shīrāz, Iran in 1236 into a family of physicians. Due to his sufi father’s influence, he received an education on sufi tradition at an early age as well as traditional Islamic sciences. He was active in the Ilkhanid and Anatolian Seljuks periods, but his works made a huge impact on science and thought in the Ottoman period. His pursuit of knowledge began with Ibn Sīnā’s al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb and its commentaries. He travelled to the epicentres of knowledge in the Islamic world in search of advanced education to help him to compile a better commentary on this treatise. Consequently, these travels allowed him to meet pioneers of sciences of his time. After his encounters and collaborations with Najm al-Dīn al-Kātibī and Naṣīr al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī in Maragha, he travelled to Anatolian cities. In Konya, he attended to Jalāl al-Dīn al-Rūmī’s learning circles and received tutorage on hadīth from Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī. He was working in the same cities with Sirāj al-Dīn al-Urmawī and he was under the patronage of important statesmen such as Shams al-Dīn al-Juwaynī and Muʻīn al-Dīn Parwāna. He was appointed judge to Sivas and Malatya by the Ilkhanids. He gave lectures at Gökmedrese in Sivas. He was later sent to Cairo, the capital of the Mamluks as an Ilkhanid ambassador. There, he met and collaborated with the great physician Ibn al-Nafīs and accumulated data for his commentary on al-Qānūn. He spent his last years in Tabriz as the de facto founder of Tabriz school of mathematics and astronomy at the Ilkhanid institution Shanb-i Ghāzān. He died in Tabriz and was buried next to his friend al-Qāḍī al-Bayḍāwī. He was tutor to many scholars such as Niẓām al-Dīn al-Nīsābūrī, Kamāl al-Dīn al-Fārisī, Ibn Mubārakshāh al-Bukhārī, Quṭb al-Dīn al-Rāzī.
He compiled treatises on all branches of sciences and his works influenced generations. Among them are al-Tuḥfa al-Shāhiyya fī ʻilm al-hay’a and Nihāyat al-idrāk fī dirāyat al-aflāk on astronomy, his commentary on al-Qānūn fī al-Ṭibb on medicine, his commentaries Ḥikmat al-Ishrāq and Ḥikmat al-ʿayn on philosophy; his philological work Miftāḥ al-Miftāh, his treatise on tafsīr, Fatḥ al-Mannān, and his encyclopaedia of sciences, Durrat al-Tāj.
Al-Shīrāzī was one of the founding fathers of mathematical sciences in Anatolia. The Ottoman scholars followed his footsteps because of his importance on ijāzatnāmas and his treatises. He was practically a scholar of Anatolia and particularly of Sivas. His appointment of judgeship to Sivas and his lectures at Gökmedrese made him an important figure for the history of Sivas. Therefore, it is only natural to organise an international symposium in Sivas which will commemorate him and discuss his life and works as well as his impact on science, thought, and culture in Sivas.
Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:
• Linguistics
• Logic
• Tafsīr
• Astronomy
• Mathematics
• Medicine
• Geography
• Philosophy
• Illuminationism
• Sufism
• Kalam
• Music
• Ethics and Political Theory
• Education and Educational Institutions in the age of Shīrāzī
• Libraries in the age of Shīrāzī
• Shīrāzī in the Manuscripts and Book Culture Studies
• The Commentaries (Shurūḥ, Ḥawāshī, Taʻlīqāt)
• Scholarly Networks and Ijāzatnāmas
• Urban Studies
The Conference Committee particularly welcomes papers which deal with these topics with an interdisciplinary approach. Abstracts should not exceed 500 words. The presentations can be delivered in Turkish, Arabic, or English. The accepted and presented papers will be published in 2021. The accommodation of all participants will be covered by the symposium organisation and some transportation expenses will be covered depending on availability.