Profile

Hanif Amin-Beidokhti studied philosophy in Tehran and Munich, at the LMU, where he also completed his doctoral studies under the supervision of Prof. Peter Adamson. His research focuses on concepts at the intersections of metaphysics, logic, and natural philosophy, primarily as they were developed within the framework of the philosophy of Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna) and his school. He is also interested in history and theories of the historiography of philosophy as a discipline, as they were developed in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and put into practice in both modern Europe and the Islamic world, especially within Persian-speaking contexts. His previous postdoctoral projects include Historiography of “Philosophy in the Islamic World” in Modern Iran and the ERC-funded project Animals in Philosophy of the Islamic World. He has published articles on Avicenna (d. 428/1037), Suhrawardī (k. 587/1191), Abū Yaʿqūb Siǧistānī (d. around 360/971), Mullā Ṣadrā (d. around 1045/1635–1636), Aqā Ǧamāl Ḫwānsārī (d. around 1122/1710), as well as on the historiography of philosophy and falsafa in modern times (18th–20th centuries), in both English and Persian. Since 2015, he has also led an international reading group dedicated to works on philosophy, theology, and logic written in classical Persian.

His first monograph, Avicenna Illuminated (De Gruyter, Scientia Graeco-Arabica 39), examines metaphysics, natural philosophy, and logic in the works of Avicenna and Suhrawardī, in particular exploring the critical adaptation of Aristotelian doctrines of the categories and hylomorphism within the Islamic philosophical tradition. Currently, as part of the ERC-funded project A_LIVE (Avicenna Live: The Immediate Context of Avicenna’s Intellectual Formation), he investigates the life, works, and philosophy of Bahmanyār b. Marzbān (d. 458/1066), Avicenna’s Zoroastrian protégé, and his role in shaping Avicenna’s philosophy as well as the broader Avicennan tradition.

Research Interests

Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna); Avicennan Philosophy in its relation to other trends of thought in the Islamic World; Bahmanyār b. Marzbān; Suhrawardī and Illuminationist Philosophy; History of Historiography of Philosophy; Philosophy (falsafa, ḥikma, kalām) in the Persianate World.

Current Research Projects and Activities

• ERC Project A_LIVE: Avicenna Live: The Immediate Context of Avicenna’s Intellectual Formation (ERC Starting Grant 2023).

Previous Research Projects and Activities

09.2024–02.2025 Post-doc Researcher, Radboud University, Netherland, Faculty of Philosophy, Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, ERC Project A_LIVE (Avicenna Live: The Immediate Context of Avicenna’s Intellectual Formation).

2022–2024      Post-doc Researcher, LMU Munich, Germany, Faculty of Philosophy, ERC Project "Animals in Philosophy of the Islamic World". 

2021–2022      Post-doc Researcher, LMU Munich, Germany, Fritz-Thyssen Fellow. Topic: "Historiography of 'Philosophy in the Islamic World' in Modern Iran."

Publications (List)

Books

Avicenna Illuminated: Suhrawardī’s Critique of Aristotelian Categories and Hylomorphism. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Scientia Graeco-Arabica 39, Ed. Marwan Rashed (forthcoming 2026).

[Persian] H. Amin Beidokhti and Z. Monajati (trans., intro. & notes), Peter Adamson: Philosophy in the Islamic World, A Very Short Introduction. Tehran: Šawand, 2019.

[Persian] H. Amin Beidokhti et al. (trans. & notes), J. R. Brown, The Laboratory of the Mind: Thought Experiments in the Natural Sciences. Tehran: Hermes, 2014.

Articles (peer reviewed)

“History of Philosophy in the Iranian Historiographies of Philosophy.” In: Humanities in Iran. Ed. by Sajjad Rizvi, Majid Daneshgar et al (Brill: Leiden, forthcoming 2026).

“The Resurrection of Animals in Ṣadr al-Dīn Shīrāzī.” In Animals in Greek, Arabic, and Latin Philosophy, ed. Peter Adamson and Miira Tuominen (Brill: Leiden, 2026), 417–450.

“Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191) on Eyesight and Vision.” In: Reader in Islamic Sensory History. Brill’s Handbook of Oriental Studies series. Ed. by Christian Lange and Adam Bursi (Brill: Leiden, 2024), 259–272.

“The Necessity and Goodness of Animals in Sijistānī’s Kashf al-Maḥjūb,” co-authored with Peter Adamson, Philosophies 9/3 (2024), 72.

“Historiography of Falsafa in Contemporary New Persian: History and Classification,” Die Welt des Islams (2025): 1–37.

“Iranian madrasa Historiographies on the Fate of Falsafa after Averroes: The Structure, Scope, and History of “Islamic Philosophy” from Mīr Dāmād to Ṭabāṭabāʾī and Āshtiyānī”, Oxford Journal of Islamic Studies 36/3 (2025) 360–405.

[Persian] “Aflāṭūn dar āstāneh-ye dowrān-e modern: Pedarān-e Aflāṭūnpažūhī-ye modern az Fīčīno tā Mārbūrgīhā [Plato on the threshold of Modern Era: Fathers of modern Plato Scholarship from Ficino to the Marburger],” Pažūheš-hāye Falsafī-ye Dānešgāh-e Tabrīz (The Quarterly Journal of Philosophical Investigations of university of Tabriz), accepted, forthcoming.

[Persian] “Aflāṭūnpažūhī-ye Friedrich Schlegel: Bayān-e amr-e nāmotanāhī dar Aflāṭūn-e romāntīk [Friedrich Schlegel’s Plato Scholarship: Expression of the Infinite in Romantic Plato],” Taʾammolāt-e Falsafī-ye Dānešgāh-e Zanǧān (Philosophical Meditations of university of Zanjan) 32 (2024), 402–437.

[Persian] “Wīrāst-e tāzeh-yī keh tāzeh nīst: barresī-ye enteqādī-ye vapasīn čāp-e Dānešnāmeh-ye ʿAlāyī [A New “Edition” which is no so New: A Critique on the Most Recent “Edition” of Avicenna’s Dānešnāmeh-ye ʿAlāyī],” Pažūhešnāme-ye Enteqādī-ye Motūn wa Barnāmehā-ye ʿOlīm Ensānī (Critical Studies in Texts & Programs of Human Sciences) 21/11 (Winter 2021-2022): 69-89.

[Persian] “Ahammiyat-e tārīḫī-o falsafī-ye Dānešnāmeh-ye ʿAlāyī va bī-ǧāygāhī-ye ān dar Ibn Sīnā-pažūhī-ye moʿāṣer [The Historical and Philosophical Significance of Avicenna's Dānešnāmeh-ye ʿAlāyī and its position in the Contemporary Avicenna Scholarship]”, Ayeneh-ye Maʿrefat 20/4 (12.1399 / 03.2021): 111-132.

“Suhrawardī on Division of Aristotelian Categories,” in Abdelkader Al Ghouz (ed.), Islamic Philosophy from the 12th to the 14th Century. Göttingen: V&R unipress, Bonn University Press, 2018, 377-408.

Video-Blog: “Historiography of Philosophy in the Islamic World”

Historiography of Philosophy: Interview with Prof. Dr. Nadja Germann.

Historiography of Philosophy: Interview with Prof. Dr. Peter Adamson.

Historiography of Philosophy: Interview with Prof. Dr. Reza Pourjavady I.

Historiography of Philosophy: Interview with Prof. Dr. Reza Pourjavady II.

Historiography of Philosophy: Interview with Prof. Dr. Sayeh Meisami.

Presentations and Papers (selected)

• “In Defence of the Peripatetics: Suhrawardī against Abū l-Barakāt on Void and Body,” The Reception and Transformation of the Late Ancient Knowledge Tradition in the Arabic-Muslim World, June 11–13, 2025, Workshop, Ruhr University of Bochum.
• “Proofs of the Imamate in Ismaili Neoplatonism: A Response to Asad Ahmed,” LMU Munich - UC Berkeley Conference, Metaphysics and Politics across the History of Philosophy, May 30–31, 2025, LMU Munich.
• “Intellect and Science: Divisions of Philosophy in Ibn Sīnā and the Emergence of an Avicennan-Ashʿarite Ethics,” Avicenna, Avicennism(s), and the Later Philosophical Traditions, International Workshop, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, November 15–17, 2024.
• “The Practice of Historiography of Philosophy in the long 20th-Century in Iran: History, Modes, and Motives,” Reception and Mis/Perception in Transcultural Intellectual History, University of Utrecht, January 26, 2024.
• “The Resurrection of Animals in Ṣadr al-Dīn Šīrāzī (d. ca. 1045/1635–6),” 11th International Colloquium of the S.I.H.S.P.A.I., LMU Munich, September 6–8, 2023.
• “Abū Yaʿqūb Sijistānī on Animals,” Animals in Greek, Arabic, and Latin Philosophy: Conference of the ERC funded project Animals in Philosophy of the Islamic World. Munich, May 18–20, 2023.
• “Avicenna and the Dānešnāmeh-ye ʿAlāʾī,” Avicenna Day: Tardīd Virtual School of Philosophy, August 24, 2023.
• “Suhrawardī’s Reduction of the Aristotelian Categories: Evidence for a Reception Case of Enneads VI.1 and VI.2 in Mediaeval Arabic Philosophy?” History of Philosophy Workshop, University of Notre Dame, Indiana, USA, 05.05.2023.
• “Epistemology of the Relatives in Avicenna,” Deutscher Orientalistentag: 100. Jahrestag, 12. – 17. September 2022, FU Berlin, 12.09.2022.
• “Maʿrefatšenāsī-ye Moāżāf dar Ebn-e Sīnā,” Avicenna-Day’s Lectures, Iranian Institute of Philosophy, 23.08.2022.
• “In Defense of Avicenna: Suhrawardī against Abū l-Barakāt on Void,” Avicennism(s) in Context: The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München & Orient-Institut Beirut 22-23 July 2022, 22.07.2022.
• “Historiography of falsafa in Contemporary New Persian: History, motivation, classification,” The Persian Philosophical Society, Sunday, May 29, Hybrid. 
• “Intellect and Science: Divisions of Philosophy in Ibn Sina and Their Relation to His Psychology and Theory of Intellect,” The International Conference on Philosophical Anthropology in Ibn Sina, 7th February 2022.
• “Avicenna’s Solution for the Puzzle of Definite Knowledge of the Correlatives in Aristotle,” TMU Monthly Lecture Series, December 16. 2020, Tarbiat Moadarres University of Tehran (Video Conference).
• “Suhrawardī on Prime Matter,” Heirs of Avicenna Workshop, May 24-25, 2019, at the Munich School of Ancient Philosophy, Sponsored by the DFG.
• “Avicenna and Suhrawardī on the Notion of the Cosmological Direction/Ǧiha, The Finitude of the Delimiting Sphere and the Realization of Directions. A Commentary on §13 of Partownāmeh,” LMU Berkeley Workshop: Post-Classical Philosophy in the Islamic World, Munich School of Ancient Philosophy, 14-15 December 2018
• “Suhrawardī and the Aristotelian Tradition,” Workshop, SBU Tehran, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, 8. October 2018.
• “The Terminology of Substance and Accident in Greek and Arabic Philosophy,” PESHAT Workshop on Neoplatonic Terminology, Hamburg, Maimonides Centre for Advanced Studies, Universität Hamburg, 18-19.04.18.
• “A Neoplatonic criticism of Aristotelian Categories: Plotinian Thought in Suhrawardī's criticism of Substance and Accidents,” 15th Annual Conference for the International Society of Neoplatonic Studies (ISNS 2017), June 14-17, 2017.
• “Suhrawardī on Division and Enumeration of Aristotelian Categories,” Islamic Philosophy from the 12th to the 14th Century – International Conference, Feb 24-26, 2016.

Research Stays

SS2023            University of Notre Dame, Department of Philosophy, History of Philosophy Forum.

Organised Events/Workshops: LMU-AUB Workshop

LMU–OIB International Workshop, Avicennism(s) in Context: The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München & Orient-Institut Beirut 22-23 July 2022 [in cooperation with Hussein Ibrahm].

Memberships

• Gesellschaft für Philosophie des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (GPMR).
• International Society for Neoplatonic Studies (ISNS).
• Iranian Association for Religious Studies.
• The Persian Philosophical Society.