Adab b) and Islamic scholarship in the ʿAbbāsid period - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
Enderwitz, Susanne
Leiden
Brill
(2,530 words)
The term adab , which most scholars trace back to the old Arab tradition and its concept of inherited customary norms, acquired a religious meaning only in Islamic times. By the ʿ Abbāsid period (third/ninth century), the term was used to refer to knowledge associated with a particular profession or rules of conduct applicable to a particular group, and has also been defined broadly as "humanism." For jurists and theologians, ʿilm al-adab helped explain the Qurʾān and ḥadīth and so supported the evolution of law and doctrine. Most scholars,