This study examines the influence of Qur'anic teachings on the development of falsafa on the one hand, and the position of tafsirs in the intellectual history of Islam on the other. To do so, in the introduction it attempts to situate the place of falsafa and its connections with kalam and tafsir, and to explain the approach that will be followed in this research. In the first part it treats some of the ontological vocabulary of the Qur'an, while in the second, it concentrates on the questions raised by the Qur'an about the ontological status of pre-existing things as well as on the notions of creation and existence. To this purpose it surveys some early tafsirs in order to see how the debate over these issues evolved therein and how philosophical discussions were appropriated and naturalized by the mufassirun.

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This thesis deals with one of the essential problems in epistemology, that is, the foundation and variety of universal concepts. The classical controversy on universals is baseless if we do not consider different kinds of universal concepts. In this thesis, universal concepts are examined as classified into three groups: first intentions, logical second intentions and philosophical second intentions. / We elaborate these three kinds of concepts from two perspectives. First, we have a journey in the history of Islamic philosophy from Farabi to contemporary philosophers in order to see what they mentioned in this regard. We found that the origin of the distinction between first and second intentions in Ibn Sina; however, he does not mention the philosophical second intentions, rather this kind of intentions is added sometime after Suhrawardi and Tusi We also examined William of Ockham's theory for the purposes of a comparative approach. Second, we discussed this threefold division based on our own understanding and analysis in the light of both Islamic and Western philosophy.

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The present work deals with establishing of the exact meaning of the technical terms used by al-Kindi in the longest of his extant philosophical treatises, The Letter on the First Philosophy. On many occasions, however, when the meaning of a term appeared to be obscure in the Letter, the evidence of al-Kindī's usage of such a term has had to be brought forward from his other philosophical works in order to elucidate its meaning as accurately as possible. / Much attention has been paid to the original significance of the terms that are al-Kindī's translation of Aristotle's philosophical vocabulary. In some instances, when the difference between the Aristotelian usage and that of al-Kindī appeared to be crucial (as for example, in case of the terms ή κοvιή άίσθησις (the common sense), and al-ḥiss al-kullī (the universal sense), both usages have been given in a detailed exposition. / Whenever helpful to clarify the meaning of the terms, the definitions of philosophical terms given by al-Tahānawī in the Ka shshaf, have been included with the definitions proper to al-Kindī. / Most of the philosophical terms have been analyzed in their proper philosophical contexts, which allows not only elucidating more distinctly their meanings but also delineating the main themes of al-Kindī's philosophy.

This dissertation is a study of the intellectual history of Ṣadr al-Dīn Dashtakī (d. 903/1498) and Ghiyāath al-Dīn Dashtakī (d. 949/1542), two important Shirazi philosophers and Shi'i thinkers who lived in the late Timurid and early Safavid period. It argues that Avicennan philosophy was revived and provided with a new impetus at a time when it was under attack by Ash'ari thinkers belonging to the later tradition. Paradoxically, many of the later Ash'ri thinkers saw it fit to engage in metaphysical speculations that took the Avicennan tradition as its basis. Yet, these same thinkers accused Avicenna and his followers of advancing specious arguments and for making incoherent statements about God, the cosmos, religious matters, and the general nature of things. So overarching was this later Ash'ari tradition, that it became the intellectual tradition par excellence in the centuries leading up to the Safavid period. In many of their major philosophical writings, the Dashtakīs sought to decouple Avicennan philosophy from Ash'ari kalām, and, at the same time, to attack the foundations of the Ash'ari tradition. In doing so, the Dashtakīs proposed a particular reading of Avicenna that was purified of Ash'ari influences and closer to philosophical Shi'ism.

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In the wake of the abolition of the Caliphate in the Islamic world with the advent of the Mongols in the 13th century, Islamic scholarship paradoxically flourished, especially in the Shi'i milieu. This era marked a renaissance which has influenced the course of Shii thought ever since. Through its major thinkers, i.e. Ibn Sa'ada, 'Ali ibn Sulayman and Maytham, the school of Bahrain contributed vigorously to this renaissance by integrating philosophy and mysticism into Shi'ism. Yet, the writings of this school are barely known to modern scholarship and many are still in manuscript form. Drawing upon both published and unpublished sources, this study reveals the importance of this school by offering a descriptive and historical analysis of this intellectual contribution to philosophy, theology and mysticism. It also demonstrates that the school of Bahrain was the first Shii school to derive its rational infra-structure in a unique way from a diversity of sources ranging from the Mu'tazili and Ash'ari theology to the Ibn Sinian philosophy and Ibn al-'Arabis mysticism. Its originality thus lies in its synthetic methodology and its interpretation of Shii literature in light of speculative sciences.