CIVILIZATION STUDIES PROGRAM (AUB)
CVSP 202: The Monotheistic Traditions from Late Antiquity to the 13th Century
INTRODUCTION TO ‘CLASSICAL ISLAMIC
THOUGHT’: CHANGE AND CONTINUITY
DAHLIA E. M. GUBARA
February 29, 2016
I. INTRODUCTION:
Scholars have often approached the subject of ‘Classical Islamic
Thought’ by identifying a certain period (broadly the 9 and 10th centuries
– with some variations) as the ‘Golden Age’ - al-‘asr al-dhahabī - of Islam
during which its essential features and greatest contributions to human
civilization were made before entering a long period of decline - inḥiṭāṭ
- until the more recent efforts at European-led modernization beginning in
the late 19thc.
 But what does the past mean to us today?
 What is ‘CLASSICAL’?
What is ‘ISLAMIC’ ?
What is ‘THOUGHT’?
Expansion of the Islamic State
II. LATE ANTIQUITY
 Two conventional theories on the formation of
Islam: ‘Out of Arabia’ and/or the Late Antique Near
East
 More than an epoch: Late Antiquity as a ‘shared
epistemic space’ (a space of knowledge-making)
III. ISLAM AS A TRADITION
 Balancing the old and the new: Revelation and
Prophecy as the linchpin of tradition
Tradition is an arena that sustains in ways both
conscious (thought) and unconscious (unthought) a
particular mode of life and knowledge-making
Tradition is therefore not opposed to reason, debate
and change, it is their condition of possibility
IV. GROUNDING KNOWLEDGE IN
TRADITION
 Epistemic certainty: how do I know that what I know
is true?
 How to justify or legitimize knowledge as one
perceives it in its immediacy but also as one receives it
from the many pasts through transmission
– i.e. what is the relationship between al-manqūl
[transmitted knowledge] and al-ma’qūl [interpretative
knowledge]; and how has this relationship animated
scholarship in the Islamic tradition, and the texts
before us.
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa Khullān al-Wafāʾ wa Ahl al-Hamd
wa Abnāʾ al-Majd (the Brethren of Purity, the Loyal
Friends, People of Praise, and Sons of Glory)
Al-Ghazālī’s Wanderings
The Harūniyya, (Seljuk-Ilkhanid mausoleum in
Tus, near Mashhad, Iran) where al-Ghazālī is
said to be buried
(http://archnet.org/sites/3885/media_contents/62839)
V. COMMON NARRATIVES, CONTEXTUAL MATTERS:
Our authors, their times, their works, and their reception
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad
ibn Muḥammad
al-Ghazālī
Anonymous collective – esoteric fraternity
Renowned figure – ‘Hujjat al-Islam’/mujadid
Possibly active in the last quarter of the 10th century
A.D. in Basra and Baghdad
Born 1058 near Tus, northeastern Iran
Died in 1111 A.D.
Political, sectarian and creedal affiliation unknown
Sunni, Ash‘arī, Shāfi‘ī, and close to Seljuk vizir
Nizām al-Mulk and the Abbasid court
Other works unknown
Prolific corpus spanning many disciplines
(jurisprudence, theology, philosophy and Sufism)
Rasā’il – encyclopedic, classification of knowledge
Al-Munqidh - Intellectual, autobiographical
Philosophically mainly neo-Platonist and
ecumenical in spirit
Critical of falsafa, reconciles legal orthodoxy with
Sufi mysticism
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs. Man before the King of
the Jinn (online source)
“These cattle, beasts of prey and wild
creatures – all animals in fact – are our
slaves. We are their masters. Some have
rebelled and escaped. Others obey
grudgingly and scorn our service”
The King replied, “What proof or evidence
have you to back up your claims?”
“Your Majesty,” said the human, “we have
both traditional religious arguments and
rational proofs of our position.”
“Very well,” said the King, “lets us hear
them.”
(Ikhwān, Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs.
Man before the King of the Jinn, p. 103)
VI. LEVELS OF INTERPRETATION:
• Epistemic certainty:
Integrated Methods, Modes of Reasoning/Knowing
• The Ends of Knowledge:
 Social: pedagogy, instruction, initiation, social and
political order
Individual: happiness, salvation (soteriology -the
final return to God, yawm al-ḥisāb)
“In myself I know that, even if I went back
to the work of disseminating knowledge, yet
I did not go back. To go back is to return to
the previous state of things. Previously,
however, I had been disseminating the
knowledge by which worldly success is
attained (...). But now I am calling men to
the knowledge whereby worldly success is
given up. (...) It is my earnest longing that I
may make myself and others better. I do not
know whether I shall reach my goal or
whether I shall be taken away while short of
my object. I believe, however, both by certain
faith and by intuition that there is no power
and no might save with God, the high, the
mighty, and that I do not move of myself but
am moved by Him, I do not work of myself
but am used by Him.”
•
(al-Ghazali, al-munqidh - trans. by W. M. Watt)
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ: Epistle 22: The Case
of the Animals vs. Man before the
King of the Jinn:
Al-Ghazālī, Al-munqidh min al-ḍalāl:
The Trial: disputation, debate, proof
and the methods of reasoning
Diving into the Profound Sea of
Knowledge
Cosmological doctrines (Creation and
Creator)
Severing the Fetters of Servile
Conformism
Mediation on power and justice
(mastery/bondage; tyranny/mercy;
truth/falsehood-ignorance)
Deducing the True Meaning of
Things
Ethical-spiritual ecology (ayāt Allah,
earth as a Trust)
The Primordial Covenant, Prophecy
and the Question of tawātur
Knowledge as Ḥikmah
The Ḥakīm’s antidote (sickness of the
heart)
The fable as a form (universal truth,
the speech of the powerful vs. the
powerless)
VII. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS:
Reason vs. Revelation? (al-manqūl and alma‘qūl)
Origins, Borrowing - Syncretism and
Reconciliation?
Philosophy vs. Religion?
Postscript – ‘Polymathesis,’
Education, Edification
Polymath: a scholar with broad expertise
who views knowledge as a complex
organic whole, and who is accordingly
able to converse and engage with a wide
range of topics and subjects to think
through the issues of her day as a
deeply involved citizen of the world.
What mattered most was the purpose to
which knowledge was put, and by
extension, its ability to instruct its bearer
on the meaning and methods of living a
good life. It’s edifying function in other words.
the ‘CVSP Man’