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Introduction to ‘Classical Islamic Thought’: Change and Continuity Dahlia E. M. Gubara

Civilization Studies Program (AUB) CVSP 202: The Monotheistic Traditions from Late Antiquity to the 13 th Century. Introduction to ‘Classical Islamic Thought’: Change and Continuity Dahlia E. M. Gubara March 5, 2018. I. Introduction:.

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Introduction to ‘Classical Islamic Thought’: Change and Continuity Dahlia E. M. Gubara

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  1. Civilization Studies Program (AUB)CVSP 202: The Monotheistic Traditions from Late Antiquity to the 13thCentury Introduction to ‘Classical Islamic Thought’: Change and Continuity Dahlia E. M. Gubara March 5, 2018

  2. I. Introduction: ‘The Golden Age’ - al-‘asral-dhahabī - (broadly the 9 and 10th c) Seen as the period in which Islam’s 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.

  3. I. Introduction: ‘The Golden Age of Islam’ - al-‘asral-dhahabī - (broadly the 9 and 10th c) Seen as the period in which Islam’s 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. • What does the past mean to us today? • What is ‘Classical’? What is ‘Islamic’ ? What is ‘Thought’? Can we think of these texts rather as: Classics of Islamic Thought

  4. Expansion of the Islamic State

  5. II. Late Antiquity • Two conventional theories on the formation of Islam: • ‘Out of Arabia’ • the Late Antique Near East

  6. II. Late Antiquity • Two conventional theories on the formation of Islam: • ‘Out of Arabia’ • the Late Antique Near East • More than an epoch: • Late Antiquity as a ‘shared epistemic space’ • (a space of knowledge-making)

  7. III. Islam as a Tradition • The Old – the existing traditions of late antiquity • The New – • a new era (past = jāhiliyya; Hijricalendar) • a new polity (al-Madina) • a new community (ummah) • new teachings and texts (Qur’an, Sunnah) • a new Tradition

  8. III. Islam as a Tradition • Balancing the old and the new – continuity and change/radical break from the past.

  9. III. Islam as a Tradition • Balancing the old and the new – continuity and change/radical break from the past. • Tradition is an arena that sustains in ways both conscious (thought) and unconscious (unthought) a particular mode of life and knowledge-making

  10. III. Islam as a Tradition • Balancing the old and the new – continuity and change/radical break from the past. • Tradition is an arena that sustains in ways both conscious (thought) and unconscious (unthought) a particular mode of life and knowledge-making • Revelation and Prophecy as the • linchpin of tradition

  11. III. Islam as a Tradition • Balancing the old and the new – continuity and change/radical break from the past. • Tradition is an arena that sustains in ways both conscious (thought) and unconscious (unthought) a particular mode of life and knowledge-making • Revelation and Prophecy as the linchpin of tradition • Tradition is therefore not opposed to reason, debate and change, it is their condition of possibility

  12. III. Islam as a Tradition • Different positions: grossly,

  13. IV. Grounding Knowledge in Tradition • How to justify/legitimize knowledge as one perceives/apprehends it, but also as one receives it from the many pasts through transmission?

  14. IV. Grounding Knowledge in Tradition How to justify/legitimize knowledge as one perceives/apprehends it, but also as one receives it from the many pasts? • i.e. what is the relationship between al-manqūl[transmitted knowledge] and al-ma’qūl[interpretative/demonstrative knowledge]?

  15. IV. Grounding Knowledge in Tradition How to justify/legitimize knowledge as one perceives/apprehends it, but also as one receives it from the many pasts? • i.e. what is the relationship between al-manqūl [transmitted knowledge] and al-ma’qūl[interpretative/demonstrative knowledge]? Or: How do I know that what I know is true? [Epistemic certainty]

  16. IV. Grounding Knowledge in Tradition How to justify/legitimize knowledge as one perceives/apprehends it, but also as one receives it from the many pasts? • i.e. what is the relationship between al-manqūl[transmitted knowledge] and al-ma’qūl[interpretative/demonstrative knowledge]? • Or: How do I know that what I know is true? [Epistemic certainty] And how is this relationship demonstrated in Islamic tradition and the texts before us?

  17. 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)

  18. Al-Ghazālī’s Wanderings

  19. 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)

  20. V. Common Narratives, Contextual Matters: Our authors, their times, their works, and their reception

  21. Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ,Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs. Man before the King of the Jinn (online source)

  22. “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” (Ikhwān,Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs. Man before the King of the Jinn, p.103)

  23. “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)

  24. VI. 3 Levels of Interpretation: 1. Epistemic certainty Integrated Methods, Modes of Reasoning/Knowing: • Demonstrative reasoning • Scriptural and prophetic utterances • Tafsīr (manifest/literal meaning [zāhir] or hidden/esoteric meaning [bātin]) “but only those who are well rooted in knowledge” can comprehend • Silsilah of testimonials – repetition of transmission [tawātur]

  25. VI. 3 Levels of Interpretation: • Epistemic certainty: • Integrated Methods, Modes of Reasoning/Knowing • The Ends (Purpose) of Knowledge: • Social: pedagogy, instruction, initiation into a community, social and political order…

  26. 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)

  27. Ghazali discusses 4 seekers of knowledge (theologians, ta’limites/batinites, philosophers, sufis) and their truth-claims, • 1) theology (kalām) –✖– merely defensive • 2) authoritative instruction (ta’līm) –✖– unreasonable • 3) philosophy (falsafa) –✖– incoherent. • 4) mysticism (taṣawwuf) – ✔ – experience, qalb

  28. “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)

  29. If knowledge is “a deep and treacherous sea,” then tradition is what anchors the seeker on her journey through this life and the next and delivers her to safety by God’s will.

  30. VII. Final Considerations: • Reason vs. Revelation? (al-manqūl and al-ma‘qūl)

  31. VII. Final Considerations: • Reason vs. Revelation? (al-manqūl and al-ma‘qūl) • Origins, Borrowing - Syncretism and Reconciliation?

  32. VII. Final Considerations: • Reason vs. Revelation? (al-manqūl and al-ma‘qūl) • Origins, Borrowing - Syncretism and Reconciliation? • Philosophy vs. Religion?

  33. 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.

  34. 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.

  35. the ‘CVSP Man’

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