Al-Mawahib al-Mustarsalah 'ala al-Tuhfah al-Mursalah: A Preliminary Study of Ibrahim (ibn 'Abd Allah al-Shami?) al-Shafi'i's Life and Thought (original) (raw)

Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān al-Abharī: A Master of Ibn al-ʿArabī

Journal of the Muhyiddin Ibn 'Arabi Society, 2020

In early Muḥarram 632 / October 1234, Ibn al-ʿArabī (d. 638/1240) wrote a letter in Damascus to an Ayyubid sovereign, giving him a general authorization (ijāza ʿāmma) for transmitting his teachings embodied in his corpus. Known as the Authorization to the Ruler al-Muẓaffar (Ijāza li-l-Malik al-Muẓaffar), the letter listed the names of around 290 of Ibn al-ʿArabī’s writings, and 71 of his teachers. Some of those teachers are well known, while the identities of the majority, especially those who trained Ibn al-ʿArabī in the East, are still vague. This study introduces the life and teachings of one of these foggy figures: Abū ʿAmr ʿUthmān al-Abharī al-Shāfiʿī (fl. 602/1206). The paper argues that al-Abharī is a significant yet neglected pietist, who met Ibn al-ʿArabī in Jerusalem. He was an ascetic traditionist authorized in Damascus by a leading Shāfiʿī expert of prophetic sayings (ḥadīth), and the author of a Sufi treatise that came to be popular with its attribution to the prominent scholars Najm al-Dīn Kubrā (d. 618/1221), ʿUmar al-Suhrawardī (d. 632/1234), Yaḥyā al-Suhrawardī (d. 587/1191), Athīr al-Dīn al-Abharī (d. 663/1265), and Aḥmad Zarrūq (d. 899/1494). There are also good reasons to identify this teacher of Ibn al-ʿArabī with the vizier of the last two Great Saljuqī sultans, who chose an ascetic interpretation of the Sufi path after abandoning his political career, although this study does not reveal conclusive evidence for this identification.

The Life and Works of Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī

Al-qantara, 2008

Abù D×wùd al-Sijist×nê (d. Basra, 275/889) was a prominent collector of prophetic hadith. He seems to have collected in Iraq, Mecca, and Syria A.H. 220-35, then Khurasan till the early 240s, then Iraq, Syria, and Egypt till around 250. He claimed to have collected 500,000 in all. He spent most of the years 250-70 in Tarsus, composing his famous Sunan, then the last five years of his life teaching near Basra. This article reviews Abù D×wùd's known works, especially al-Sunan, which became one of the Six Books. The Sunan was transmitted from him in slightly different versions by nine named traditionists. A little under 90 percent of it goes back to the Prophet. It is distinguished from other collections by its concentration on hadith that classify actions (açk×m). Abù D×wùd's express comments within the Sunan concern alternative versions, legal applications, and rij×l criticism. Because it seldom repeats hadith under multiple topics, it is probably the largest of the Six Books. It must be admitted that Abù D×wùd was unusually careless at identifying men in as×nêd. In his personal piety, Abù D×wùd stood above all for modesty. His separate collection of hadith on renunciation, al-Zuhd, comprises mainly the sayings of Companions. In law, Abù D×wùd was close to Açmad b. •anbal (d. 241/855). In theology, he adhered to the ninth-century ahl al-sunnah wa-l-jam×'ah. He is also said to have admired and been admired by the proto-Sufi Sahl al-Tustarê (d. 283/896?).

Ash'arism through an Akbari Lens The Two “Tahqiqs” in the Curriculum Vitae of Ibrahim al-Kurani (d. 1019/1690)

Philosophical Theology in Islam: Later Ash'arism East and West, 2020

For use by the Author only | © 2020 Koninklijke Brill NV the development as follows: "Culturally, Muslim thinking ceased to progress. Kalām, like all other Islamic sciences, lived on its own past". Gardet and Anawati defended their thesis that al-Ghazālī was the initiator of the new method against the old thesis that the in uence of Avicenna is already evident in the works of his teacher al-Juwaynī (d. 478/1085). This view was given new impetus in several recent studies, which argued that his proof for the existence of God from contingency and an aspect of his account of divine attributes exhibit Avicennan in uences. Further research, however, is still needed on the nature and extent of al-Juwaynī's engagement with philosophical sources, as this remains a decidedly under-researched area. As for the thesis that philosophy came to an end and that theology stagnated after al-Ghazālī, this has been widely and e fectively challenged in recent scholarship. There is today a near consensus that a major trait of later Ashʿarī theology was its profound engagement with philosophy, and that this engagement contributed to the continuity of (speci cally Avicennan) philosophy rather than to a decline of philosophy in Muslim scholarship. An important foundation for correcting the standard twentieth-century reading of al-Ghazālī's intellectual project was laid by Richard M. Frank, who argued in a series of studies, including two in uential monographs, that rather than being its uncompromising opponent, al-Ghazālī was in fact indebted to Avicennan philosophy. This indebtedness to philosophy led Frank to the conclusion that al-Ghazālī was only nominally an Ashʿarī. Frank's hypothesis was challenged in several articles by Michael Marmura, Ahmad Dallal, Oliver Leaman and Toby Mayer, which attempted to restore al-Ghazālī's connection Gardet and Anawati, Introduction à la théologie musulmane, 76-78. For a critical assessment of Gardet and Anawati's account of what they described as fossilized conservatism, see also El-Rouayheb, Islamic Intellectual History, 173-75. Davidson, Proofs for Eternity, 161-62; Rudolph, "La preuve de l'existence de Dieu"; Wisnovsky, "One Aspect of the Avicennan Turn". An alternative scenario was proposed by Wilferd Madelung, who argued that al-Juwaynī rather draw on a Muʿtazilite theologian, Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī (d. 426/1044), who had studied in Baghdad with (pre-Avicennan) Christian philosophers (see his "Abū l-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī's Proof"). Al-Juwaynī nowhere cites Abū l-Ḥusayn in his works-unlike the later al-Rāzī, who explicitly engages with him. Abū l-Ḥusayn's in uence on al-Rāzī was discussed by Daniel Gimaret (Théories, 134-53, focusing on al-Rāzī's theory of human action) and Sabine Schmidtke (The Theology of al-ʿAllāma al-Ḥillī). On the historiography of Arabic philosophy see, for example, Gutas, "The Heritage of Avicenna" and idem, "The Study of Arabic Philosophy in the Twentieth Century". This is indeed not a development restricted to Ashʿarī kalām, but it has parallels in Māturīdī and Shīʿī kalām. Frank, Creation and the Cosmic System; idem, Al-Ghazālī and the Ashʿarite School.

Al-Kalāʿī, Ibn Sālim (Encyclopaedia of Islam 3)

Abū l-Rabīʿ Sulaymān b. Mūsā b. Sālim b. Ḥassān b. Sulaymān b. Aḥmad al-Ḥimyarī al-Kalāʿī al-Balansī, known as Ibn Sālim al-Kalāʿī (b. Tuesday 1 Ramaḍān 565/19 May 1170, d. Thursday 20 Dhū l-Ḥijja 634/13 August 1237), was an eminent scholar-warrior, historian, poet, and orator. His contemporaries recounted that he was the last of the great Andalusī traditionists.

The Works of Abu Mansur Al-Tha'Alibi (350-429/961-1039)

Journal of Arabic Literature, 2009

This article deals with the oeuvre of Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī, a prominent literary figure of the eastern part of the Islamic world in the 4th/10th century. It deals with some of the literary and social issues that led to the numerous problems of false attribution and duplication in his bibliography, such as patronage and the periodical reworking of his books. This is followed by an up-to-date bibliography for al-Thaʿālibī, based on archives, primary sources and secondary literature. Works in print and manuscript form are assessed as to their authenticity and content, including bibliographical information on published works and locations of manuscripts. A further list reunites lost works and those surviving in quotations with references to the extant passages.

Maqāla fī l-radd ʿalā l-Mujbira (MS Najaf) attributed to ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Hamadhānī

A Common Rationality: Mu'tazilism in Islam and Judaism, 2007

In the autumn of 1968 I photographed in the al-Imàm al-Ĕakêm Public Library in Najaf a small treatise, consisting of 24 pages with 17 lines each. It is the third text in a majmŅ̈a (no. 182) which so far is not mentioned in any printed catalogue. 2 At the beginning of the treatise title and author are mentioned: MaqÛla fą l-radd ̈alÛ l-mujbira li-QÛȗą l-quȗÛt ̈Abd al-JabbÛr b. Așmad. The manuscript, which is seriously corrupted particularly towards the end, is a late copy: According to the colophon (p. 24:13-19) it was completed in Rajab 1335/April-May 1917 by ̉Abd al-Razzàq b. al-Shaykh Muĕammad b. al-Shaykh Ďàhir al-Samàwê. None of the classical sources mentions a work of this title or topic among the works of the qÛȗą ̉Abd al-Jabbàr al-Hamadhànê (d. 415/1025). 3 However, ̉Abd al-Karêm ̉Uthmàn lists among his writings a KitÛb fą l-qaȗÛ̇ wa-l-qadar and states that a manuscript of the text is extant in Najaf. 4 This is confirmed by Aĕmad al-Ĕusaynê's catalogue of the Khizànat al-RawȐa al-Ĕaydariyya (also known as al-Khizàna al-Gharawiyya): The library possesses a collective manuscript (no. 675) that was copied by Muĕammad b. ̉Alê al-Jurjànê in 720/1322 and consists of two treatises, the second being al-QaȗÛ̇ wa-l-qadar by ̉Abd al-Jabbàr. 5 I was unable to inspect this manuscript, but it should not be excluded that the KitÛb fą l-qaȗÛ̇ wal-qadar and the MaqÛla fą l-radd ̈alÛ l-mujbira are copies of the very same text. Moreover, it is possible that ̉Abd al-Razzàq had used al-Jurjànê's copy of the text as his Vorlage. Our analysis will try to show that the doctrinal outlook of the responsum is not completely identical with the known doctrines of ̉Abd al-Jabbàr. For this 1 We thank Wilferd Madelung for his careful reading of the edition, his corrections and suggestions. 2 For the mentioned library and its collections, see Geoffrey Roper,