This is a comparative study of the epistemology of Suhrawardi and Mulla Sadra Shi razi, two Muslim thinkers of the 6th/12th and 11th/17th century. It focuses on two main issues: Illuminative theory of knowledge and, in the framework of this theory, Mulla Sadra's doctrine of knowledge by presence (al-'ilm al-huduri) studied in the context of his philosophical system (al-hikmah al-muta'ali yah). I have also discussed his methodology which is multidimensional. / The aim of this study is not to elaborate on Mulla Sadra's theory of knowledge in general, but rather to present what Mulla Sadra meant by knowledge by presence, al-'ilm al-huduri. However, it is my opinion that his doctrine of knowledge by presence is the corner stone of his epistemological system. In the light of this doctrine, he gives a new definition of knowledge, a novel interpretation of its division into al-'ilm al-huduri and al-'ilm al-husuli, and, finally, a systematic chain of various kinds of knowledge by presence (e.g., self-knowledge, God's knowledge of His Essence and God's knowledge of things). These three aspects of his doctrine have been surveyed and, in comparing them with Suhrawardi's theory, evaluated in this thesis.

Reports relating supernatural events - or miracles - in the life of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 11/632) have been traditionally either ignored by those modern scholars attempting to determine the historicity of the source material or have been studied piecemeal in an attempt to determine their origins by those scholars who see them as secondary additions. The current study will examine both the sira/ta'rikh, the story of Muḥammad's life as told within larger works of universal history, and tafsir, exegetical, works of two medieval Muslim scholars, al-T&dotbelow;abari (d. 310/923) and Ibn Kathir (d. 773/1373), to attempt to determine how the reports of the supernatural fit into the story of Muḥammad's life as a whole. The result is that there is both a supernatural and mundane archetype for the life of Muḥammad, and that they appear to mirror each other almost perfectly. Whereas the story begins with God performing all the miracles for Muḥammad's benefit, by the time of his death in Medina, Muḥammad has completed his mastery over the forces of the supernatural, even to the point where it appears that God performs miracles directly in response to Muḥammad's prayers. Thus, as Muḥammad gained more control over the movement he founded, he gained an equal amount of control over the forces of the supernatural. Both al-T&dotbelow;abari and Ibn Kathir include reports that contain the supernatural archetype, but also include reports that diverge from it in important ways. While there is not one, overall theory to explain why each author made the changes he did to the supernatural archetype of Muḥammad's life, the examples in the following chapters indicate that the role of the supernatural versus the mundane, the politicization of the archetype, and authorial opinion were important to each scholar and help to support the argument that the miracle stories are integral to the life of Muḥammad as a whole, and deserve to be studied as such.

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