In this essay I would like to introduce Neoplatonism as a new category in global intellectual history. The term Neoplatonism was coined in the eighteenth century to make a distinction between Platonic thought and the ideas of a group of philosophers who followed the lead of the third-century philosopher Plotinus; the group included his student and biographer Porphyry, Iamblichus and Proclus, to name only its four main representatives. More than the earlier Platonists, and even more so than the great philosopher himself, these late-Hellenic followers of Plato commented on his thinking, further systemised it, and aligned it to mystical cults oriented towards Pythagoras, Orpheus and Hermes Trismegistus. From the third to the fifth century, all these elements together generated a seething Neoplatonic juncture which was to have a tremendous impact on the post-Classical world of Europe, the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world. Although an almost Alexandrian library has been written on Neoplatonism, so far, no comprehensive connective or comparative analysis has been made of these three geographical branches. In this essay, I will pinpoint one particular moment in time when, after centuries of more hidden influences, Neoplatonism once again, and for about one long sixteenth century, became the cutting-edge, avant-garde intellectual force in both the Latinate West and the Persianate East.