Abstract: Afdal al-Dîn Kâshânî, better known as Bâbâ Afdal, died in the village of Maraq near Kashan in central Iran in the year 1210. Little is known of his life or his teachers, only that he taught in Maraq and had many students. His Persian philosophical prose is the most beautiful in the language. He mentions Aristotle and Hermes among previous philosophers, but only alludes to his Muslim predecessors. His views, like those of the Ikhwân al-Safâ’ and many others, are strongly tinged with Neoplatonism. He explains with rare clarity that the goal of philosophy is to actualize intelligence and to achieve human perfection. His positions on ontology, epistemology, ethics, politics, cosmology, and psychology are both original and traditional. In three chapters, the book introduces Bâbâ Afdal and his writings, describes the world view of Islamic philosophy, and analyzes significant terms of the philosophical vocabulary. In the main body of the book, more than half of Bâbâ Afdal's Persian writings are translated into English.

Keywords: Baba Afdal, cosmology, ethics, intellect, Islamic philosophy, Kashani, Neoplatonism, Persian prose, philosophical psychology, self-knowledge