Ibn Kathir (d. 774/1373): His intellectual circle, major works and Qur'anic exegesis
/ By Younus Y. Mirza
Faculty of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences , Georgetown University , United States of America,
2012.
viii, 206 p.
مدخل مرتبط: ابن کثیر، اسماعیل بن عمر
مدخل مرتبط: ابن تَيمِيّه، تقي الدين
مدخل مرتبط: مزي، يوسف بن عبدالرحمان
مدخل مرتبط: برزالي ، علم الدّين قاسم بن محمد
مدخل مرتبط: ذهبي، محمد بن احمد
مدخل مرتبط: ابن زملکانی ، محمد بن علی
مدخل مرتبط: سبکی ، خاندان
Code E.Dissertation : 161
Bibliography
PH.D
Arabic and Islamic Studies
This dissertation focuses on one of the most popular medieval Muslim figures in modern times, Ibn Kathīr. I argue that Ibn Kathīr’s works reflect a critical theological struggle in the history of Islam between those who emphasized the original sources of the Qur’ān and prophetic practice (traditionalists) and those who insisted on the incorporation of scholastic theology and the accumulated experience of the community (Ash‘arīs). Previous scholarship considers Ibn Kathīr simply a student of the great traditionalist jurist and theologian Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328). Ibn Taymiyya was the symbolic leader of the traditionalist movement and was imprisoned multiple times because of his attempts to challenge the established Ash‘arī social order. Ibn Kathīr’s ardent support of Ibn Taymiyya led many Arabic biographers to subsume Ibn Kathīr under the hagiography of Ibn Taymiyya. Modern Western scholarship builds off the Arabic biographical literature to the point that Ibn Kathīr is perceived as the mere “spokesperson” for Ibn Taymiyya and his Qur’ānic exegesis a simple implementation of Ibn Taymiyya’s Qur’ānic hermeneutic. Yet, through examining Ibn Kathīr’s intellectual circle, major works, and Qur’ānic exegesis, this dissertation demonstrates that Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Kathīr represent two different types of traditionalism. Ibn Taymiyya believed in an intellectualized traditionalism which delved deeply into philosophy and scholastic theology to argue for scripture’s rationality. Ibn Kathīr, on the other hand, subscribed to a fideist traditionalism which was content with the superiority of the transmitted sources and the use of rational tools to analyze scripture. Ibn Kathīr’s Qur’ānic exegesis, his most famous work, was thus less a product of Ibn Taymiyya than that of his fideist traditionalism and his attempt to respond to the dominant Ash‘arism.