Description
Book SynopsisEvents are making clear to ever-widening circles of readers the need for something more than a superficial knowledge of non-European cultures. In particular, the blossoming into independence of numerous African states, many of which are largely Muslim or have a Muslim head of state, has made clear the growing political importance of the Islamic world, and, as a result, the desirability of extending and deepening the understanding and appreciation of this great segment of mankind.
Islamic philosophy and theology are looked at together in a chronological framework in this volume. From a modern standpoint, this juxtaposition of the two disciplines is important for the understanding of both; but it should be realized at the outset that it is a reversal of the traditional Islamic procedure. Not merely were the disciplines different, but in the earlier centuries the exponents were two different sets of persons, trained in two different educational traditions, each with its own separ
Table of Contents
One: The Umayyad Period; 1: The Beginnings of Sectarianism; 2: The Kh?rijites; 3: The Shi‘ites; 4: The Murji’ites And Other Moderates; Two: The First Wave of Hellenism 750-950; 5: The Translators and the First Philosophers; 6: The Expansion of Sh?‘ism; 7: The Mu‘tazilites; 8: The Consolidation of Sunnism; 9: Al-Ash‘ari; Three: The Second Wave of Hellenism 950-1258; 10: The Flowering of Philosophy; 11: The Vicissitudes of Sh?‘ism; 12: The Progress of Sunnite Theology; 13: Al-Ghaz?Li; 14: Sunnite Theology From 1100 to 1250; 15: Theology and Philosophy in the Islamic West; Four: The Period of Darkness 1250-1900; 16: The Sclerosis of Philosophical Theology; 17: The Vitality of the ?anbalites; 18: The Transformation Of Sh?‘ism; Five: The New Dawn; 19: The Prospect for Theology
