عنوان

Re-reading al-Ghazali:

TLpq89233398

انگلیسی

Re-reading al-Ghazali:

[Thesis]

F. Mitha

Orthodoxy, reason and authority in the "Kitab al-Mustazhiri"

W. B. Hallay

McGill University (Canada)

1993

189

M.A.

McGill University (Canada)

1993

This thesis sets out to examine the significance of al-Ghazali's text entitled Fada' ih al-Batiniyya wa fada' il al-Mustazhiriyya, by placing it against the environment--political and social--in which it was written, and by focussing on the varying styles of argumentation contained in it. This examination shows that, in addition to being a polemical tract against the Isma'ilis of his time, al-Ghazali also wrote this work in order to confront the intellectual challenges posed by the so-called Isma'ili doctrine of ta'lim. Challenges which impinged on the status of the Sunni Caliph per se and, by extension, on the Caliph's relationship with the Saljuq Sultan. More importantly, for al-Ghazali these intellectual challenges also impinged on the authority of Sunni fiqh and kalam, and hence carried implications for the role and status of the 'ulama'. In responding to these challenges, al-Ghazali draws upon styles of argumentation shaped by the textual traditions of: adab al-firaq, kalam, fiqh, siyasa shar'iyya and nasihat al-muluk. The intellectual diversity of the ideas and arguments in this text is emblematic of the complex set of concerns with which al-Ghazali was engaged, embracing the broad themes of orthodoxy, reason and authority in medieval Islamic thought and society. Above all, in writing this text al-Ghazali brought to bear a degree of sophistication and originality which has hitherto been inadequately studied by other researchers.

Middle Ages

Philosophy

Philosophy, religion and theology

Religion

Religion

Social sciences

F. Mitha

W. B. Hallay

p

[Thesis]

276903

a

Y