M. Fariduddin Attar

CCSI Research Fellow

Postdoctoral Fellowship funded by Fonds de recherche du Québec (FRQ)

Fariduddin Attar received his PhD from the Institute of Islamic Studies, McGill University (2023).His dissertation deals with the cosmological theories of Ibn Sīnā (d. ca. 428/1037) and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606 AH/1210 CE), both of whom represented the philosophical tradition of the Islamic “East” (al-mashriq), a region comprising of northern Iran, Khurasan, and Transoxiana. His thesis discusses how the metaphysical principles of Divine oneness, efficient causality, intelligence, and soul interact with cosmological issues concerning the nature of celestial entities and their governance of the sublunary world. His current fellowship at the Carleton Centre for the Study of the Islam (CCSI) is funded by the FRQSC (Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et culture). The centrepiece of this research project is Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s infamous work on astrology, talismans, and invocation of the celestial spirits, al-Sirr al-maktūm  (The Concealed Secret), with a focus on historical and textual issues, as well as the text’s speculative philosophical content. He is also working on a systematic comparison of Fakhr al-Dīn’s philosophical system with that of the “master of illumination,” Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (c. 549/1155–587/1191). Dr. Attar recently published A Comprehensive, Annotated, and Indexed Bibliography of the Modern Scholarship on Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (544/1150 – 606/1210) (Brill, 2023), co-authored with Dr. Damien Janos, and served as assistant editor forThe Wiley Blackwell History of Islam (2018).