A New Terminus Ad Quem for 'Umar al-Suhrawardī's Magnum Opus

In addition to this particular text, there is another piece of manuscript evidence that helps us place the composition of the 'Aw arif al-macarif prior to 612/1214-15, namely, ms Siileymaniye, H. Husnu Pasa 585mu/4, fol. 219b, which among the skein of minor treatises and letters ascribed to Suhrawardi contains a badly damaged, but still partially legible copy of a note dated 607/1210-1 1, said by the copyist to have been written by Suhrawardi on a volume of the 'Awarif al-ma'arif (fig. 2): Therefore, the new terminus ad quem for cUmar al- Suhrawardi' s magnum opus, as well as his AHam al-huda and HiIy at al-nasikfi l-manasik, is 605/1208-9, a significant piece of bio -bibliographical data which helps establish a point of reference for a potential chronological sequence of the works of one of the most prolific and influential Sufi authors of a critical period in the history of the development of Islamic mysticism and its institutions.