revitalizing amesha.spentas in suhrawardi’s vade-mecum of lovers

Suhrawardi’s lifelong project was to revive the spiritual wisdom of ancient iran. in pursuit of this goal, he sought to revivify the esoteric aspects of mazdean tradition. in addition to exploring the absolute truth, suhrawardi also delved into the mysteries of the divine entities known as amesha.spentas. his treatise, vade-mecum of lovers, provides insights into his thoughts on this matter. vade-mecum of lovers is one of suhrawardi’s seven persian treatises containing metaphoric points that would reveal the meaning of what has been written in the second section of his book entitled as hikmat-al-ishraq. at the outset of the treatise, suhrawardi demonstrates that the intellect –which was the first thing god created– is endowed with three qualities that are in line with those of ohrmazd’s (plato’s demiurge) dēn, gāh, and zamān in mazdean tradition. the first quality of intellect is its ability to comprehend god, which aligns with the concept of dēn (as expounded in pahlavi books like bundahishn) and, in terms of esoteric interpretation, is referred to as knowledge. the second quality of intellect is its ability to understand the existence of itself, which aligns with the notion of gāh; in terms of esoteric interpretation, it corresponds to light in pahlavi literature. the third quality of intellect is its ability to perceive its quiddity which did not exist before but now does. this quality resonates with the idea of zamān explained as power in pahlavi books. bahman emerged from dēn, urdībihisht emerged from gāh, and shahrivar emerged from zamān. suhrawardi called these three amesha.spentas, husn, ishq, and huzn. in persian, they are referred to as nikuyī (beauty), mehr (love), and anduh (sorrow). these three, who sprang from a single source and were brothers to each other, appeared in the allegory of adam’s creation and the angels’ bestowal, as well as in the allegory of joseph and potiphar’s wife. however, suhrawardi did not discuss these three during the early islamic period in his treatise. thus, this article aims to explore the deep aspects of suhrawardi’s philosophy that are reflected in vade-mecum of lovers in order to shed some light on the revival of the pahlavi or khosrawani tradition in his treatise.