Shahab ad-Din Suhrawardi, titled as the Illumination Sheikh, and Sheikh-e Shahid is the most important philosopher of the sixth century AH. He was born in 549 AH in the village of Sohreward in Zanjan. Suhrawardi began traveling through Iran as soon as he finished his education. He visited the Sufi elders and it was during these journeys that Sheikh-e Shahid became interested in Sufism.
It can be believed that his most specific theories about the evolution of human being were accomplished through illumination. According to Suhrawardi, one must transcend his existence and perceive more illumination. Should this ascension go on, one will be freed from this physical world. Through one’s will and understanding, through knowledge and action, one can realize his ideal version. Therefore, the seeker should be told to change his view of the world and take the path to illumination. Later, Suhrawardi traveled to Islamic lands to meet other Sufi leaders. He was really interested in travel, as well as finding a partner who would accompany him in his researches. He first went to Anatolia in Turkey. He then went to Sham and spent one year in the court of two Seljuk kings, Suleiman II and Emad ol-Din Abubakr.
They commissioned him to write two treaties of Partonameh and Alarwah ol-Emadieh. He finally went to Aleppo and met Malek Zahir and his father, Saladin. The city of Aleppo was a great Shite center before the Crusades, but after the Fatimid Caliphate was defeated by the Europeans, the Muslims turned to Saladin, who was Sunni. Suhrawardi entered Aleppo just when this profound change was happening in the north of Syria. This is how Yaghut Hamavi, the famous historian describes Suhrawardi: “Malek Zahir called for him. The jurists gathered around and debated him. They were defeated by his reason.
Malek Zahir liked and chose him as one of his companions. This led to the anger of the defeated, who accused him of being an infidel. This accusing was written to Saladin, telling him that should he stay alive, the people will be corrupted. Saladin ordered his son to kill Suhrawardi. And the jurists of Aleppo sentenced him, too. This news reached Suhrawardi. He asked Malek Zahir to have him imprisoned so that he would avoid eating and drinking to die. It is said that Malek Zahir ordered to suffocate him in prison. He was finally killed in 587 AH, when he was only forty years old.