Islam • 11The Ismailis derived a good deal of their cosmic symbol-
ism from Falsafah, the third of the esoteric movements that
emerged at this time. It sprang from the cultural renaissance
inaugurated by the Abbasids, in particular the discovery of
Greek philosophy, science and medicine that were now avail-
able to Muslims in Arabic. The Faylasufs were enthralled by
the Hellenistic cult of reason; they believed that rationalism
was the highest form of religion, and wanted to relate its more
elevated insights to the revelation of the Quran. They had a
difficult task. The Supreme Deity of Aristotle and Plotinus
was very different from Allah. It did not concern itself with
earthly events, had not created the world and would not judge
it at the end of time. Where monotheists had experienced
God in the historical events of this world, the Faylasufs
agreed with the Greeks that history was an illusion; it had no
beginning, middle or end, since the universe emanated eter-
nally from its First Cause. The Faylasufs wanted to get be-
yond the transient flux of history, and learn to see the
changeless, ideal world of the divine that lay beneath it. They
regarded human reason as a reflection of the Absolute Reason
which is God. By purifying our intellects of all that was not
rational and learning to live in a wholly reasonable way,
human beings could reverse the process of eternal emanation
away from the divine, ascend from the multiplicity and com-
plexity of life here below to the simplicity and singularity of
the One. This process of catharsis, the Faylasufs believed, was
the primordial religion of all humankind. All other cults were
simply inadequate versions of the true faith of reason.
Yet the Faylasufs were usually devout men, who believed
that they were good Muslims. Their rationalism was itself a
kind of faith, because it takes courage and great trust to be-
lieve that the world is rationally ordered. A Faylasuf dedi-
cated himself to living the whole of his life in a reasonable
manner; he wanted to bring all his experiences and values to-