Mulla Sadra, The Elixir of the Gnostics

Professor Chittick undertook the translation from Arabic of the Iksir al-`Arifin (Elixir of the Gnostics) at the bequest of the Sadra IslamicPhilosophy Research Institute. No doubt, one of the institute’s reasons formaking this request is because Chittick is currently one of NorthAmerica’s most formidable scholars of the Islamic “sapiental” tradition,the stream of thought that combined both falsafah (philosophy) andtasawwuf (Sufism). He has to his credit some of the best English translationsof medieval Arabic and Persian texts. Chittick’s wealth of knowledgecomes out in the extensive endnotes, running 28 pages, which notonly help explain obscure passages and terms, but also trace many of theideas to their sources.The Elixir is a unique work of Sadra’s in that it is, as Chittick notes inthe introduction, something of a translation of Kashani’s (d. 1213-14)Persian Jawidan-nama (Book of the Everlasting). One could argue that theEverlasting serves simply as a template for Sadra’s work, since he removes 40 percent of the text and increases it by half the length of theoriginal. In that regard, most of the Elixir is original. However, the basicstructure of the Everlasting, four parts divided into 35 chapters, remains.The four parts deal with the classification of the various sciences, thenature of the soul, and cosmic beginnings and ends. Within the rubric ofthese four broad categories, a range of subjects are covered: from time,space, Adam, and Satan, to birth, death, and the resurrection. TheEverlasting, it is worth noting, was also translated into English by Chittickjust 2 years before the publishing of this work, in the Heart of IslamicPhilosophy (pp. 194-233), another factor rendering him a most suitabletranslator for this text ...