The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam [1 ed.] 0190886323, 9780190886325

Table of contents :
cover
The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam
Copyright
Dedication
Contents
Introduction
Conventions
I. Post-​Classical Philosophy in Its Islamic Context
First Chapter: Khorasan, the Birthplace of Post-​Classical  Philosophy, a Land in Decline?
The madrasa System
The Cities of Khorasan and Its Surrounding Provinces
The First Half of the Sixth/​Twelfth Century: Seljuq Rule
The Second Half of the Sixth/​Twelfth Century: Khwārazmshāhs and Ghūrids
Other Patrons: Qarakhanids, the Caliphal Court in Baghdad, and the Ayyubids in Syria
Second Chapter: The Death of falsafa as a Self-​Description  of Philosophy
Falsafa as a Quasi-​Religious Movement Established by Uncritical Emulation (taqlīd)
Falsafa as Part of the History of the World’s Religions
Three Different Concepts of Philosophy in Islam
Ḥikma as the New Technical Term for “Philosophy”
Third Chapter: Philosophy and the Power of the Religious Law
The Legal Background of al-​Ghazālī’s fatwā on the Last Page of His Tahāfut al-​falāsifa
Persecution of Philosophers in the Sixth/​Twelfth Century
ʿAyn al-​Quḍāt’s Execution in 525/​1131 in Hamadan
Shihāb al-​Dīn Yaḥyā al-​Suhrawardī’s Execution c. 587/​1192 in Aleppo
Was al-​Ghazālī’s fatwā Ever Applied?
II. Philosophers and Philosophies: A Biographical History of Philosophy in the Sixth/​Twelfth Century Islamic East
The Principal Sources for Sixth/​Twelfth-​Century History of Philosophy in the Islamic East
The Early Sixth/​Twelfth Century: Avicennism Undisturbed
Avicennism Contested: The Early Decades of the Sixth/​Twelfth Century
The Outsider as Innovator: Abū l-​Barakāt al-​Baghdādī (d. c. 560/​1165)
Two Ghazalians of Transoxania: al-​Masʿūdī and Ibn Ghaylān al-​Balkhī (both d. c. 590/1194)
Majd al-​Dīn al-​Jīlī: Teacher of Two Influential Philosophers Trained in Maragha
Al-​Suhrawardī (d. c. 587/​1192), the Founder of the “School of Illumination”
Fakhr al-​Dīn al-​Rāzī (d. 606/​1210): Post-​Classical Philosophy Fully Developed
III. The Formation of ḥikma as a New Philosophical Genre
First Chapter: Books and Their Teachings
Al-​Rāzī’s “Philosophical Books” (kutub ḥikmiyya)
What Books of ḥikma Do: Reporting Avicenna
First Perspective: Teachings on Epistemology
What Books in ḥikma Also Do: Doubting and Criticizing Avicenna
Knowledge as a “Relational State”
Knowledge as “Presence”: The Context in al-​Suhrawardī
Knowledge as Relation: Abū l-​Barakāt al-​Baghdādī’s Key Contribution
Knowledge as Relation: Sharaf al-​Dīn al-​Masʿūdī
Knowledge as Relation: Origins in al-​Ghazālī and Avicenna
Do al-​Rāzī’s “Philosophical Books” Teach Philosophical Ashʿarism?
Second Perspective: Teachings on Ontology and Theology
A New Place for the Study of Metaphysics within Philosophy
Opposing Avicenna: God’s Essence Is Distinct from His Existence
The Content of God’s Knowledge Understood as Positive Divine Attributes
What Books of ḥikma Mostly Do: Endorsing and Correcting Avicennan Philosophy
Second Chapter: Books and Their Genre
The Eclectic Career of al-​Ghazālī’s Doctrines of the Philosophers (Maqāṣid al-​falāsifa)
Al-​Ghazālī as Clandestine faylasūf: Evaluating His Maḍnūn Corpus
The Maḍnūn Corpus and Forgery: Two Pseudo-​Epigraphies Foisted on al-​Ghazālī
Between Neutral Report and Committed Investment: al-​Masʿūdī’s Commentary on Avicenna’s Glistering Homily (al-​Khuṭba al-​gharrāʾ)
Al-​Masʿūdī’s Reconciliation of falsafa and kalām on the Issue of the World’s Eternity
Post-​Classical Philosophy and Tolerance for Ambiguity
Third Chapter: Books and Their Method
Dialectical Reasoning Replaces Demonstration: “Careful Consideration” (iʿtibār) in Abū l-​Barakāt al-​Baghdādī
The Background of Abū l-​Barakāt’s “Careful Consideration” (iʿtibār)
The Middle Way between Avicennism and Ghazalianism: How Fakhr al-​Dīn al-​Rāzī Describes His Philosophy
Fakhr al-​Dīn al-​Rāzī’s Method of “Probing and Dividing” (sabr wa-​taqsīm)
A Case Study of the New Method: Al-​Rāzī on God’s Knowledge of Particulars
The Method in Books of ḥikma: Implementing the Principle of Sufficient Reason
The Method in Books of kalām: Limiting the Principle of Sufficient Reason
Epilogue: Ḥikma and kalām in Fakhr al-​Dīn’s Latest Works
Conclusions
The Formation of Post-​Classical Philosophy in the Islamic East during the Sixth/​Twelfth Century
What Was Philosophy in Islam’s Post-​Classical Period?
Appendix 1: List of Avicenna’s Students and Scholars Active in the Sixth/​Twelfth Century Mentioned in Ibn Funduq al-​Bayhaqī’s (d. 565/​1169–​70) Tatimmat Ṣiwān al-​ḥikma (ed. M. Shāfiʿ, 1935) and in Muʿīn al-​Dīn al-​Naysābūrī’s (d. c. 590/​1194) Itmām
Appendix 2: Relative Chronology of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s Works Based on Citation Relationships
Bibliography
Index of Manuscripts
General Index