Muslim exegesis of the Bible in medieval Cairo : Najm al-Din al-Tufi's (d. 716/1316) commentary on the Christian scriptures /
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Najm al-Dīn al-Ṭūfī's (d. 716/1316) extraordinary commentary on the Christian scriptures has not received the scholarly attention it deserves. Illustrating the way in which the Bible was read, interpreted and used as a proof-text in the construction of early 14th century Muslim views of Christianity, his al-Ta'līq 'alā al-Anājīl al-arba'a wa-al-ta'līq 'alā al-Tawrāh wa-'alā ghayrihā min kutub al-anbiyā' (Critical Commentary on the Four Gospels, the Torah and other Books of the Prophets) is an invaluable treasure for the study of Muslim-Christian dialogue and its history. In Muslim Exegesis of the Bible in Medieval Cairo, Lejla Demiri makes this important and unusual work available for the first time in a scholarly edition and English translation, with a full introduction that places Ṭūfī in his intellectual context.
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1 online resource (xiv, 566 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004243200 :
1570-7350 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Frühe Šaiḫī- und Bābī-Theologie : Die Darlegung der Beweise für Muḥammads besonderes Prophetentum (Ar-Risāla fī Iṯbāt an-Nubūwa al-Ḫāṣṣa) /
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This book is an introduction to the literature and thought of the founders of the Shaykhiyya and the Bābiyyah, two important religious movements in nineteenth-century Iran. The first part is an overview of the thought of Aḥmad al-Aḥsāʾī and Kāẓim ar-Rashtī, the progenitors of the Shaykhiyya, with a focus on their religious and philosophical teachings. The second part is an analysis of the early writings of ʿAlī-Muḥammad Shīrāzī (the Bāb), the initiator of the Bābiyyah. It contains a survey of major concepts found in his works and addresses issues that have generated debate in the past, particularly the exact nature of his religious claim and its reception by his contemporaries. Finally, the book contains an edition of the Bāb's Treatise on Specific Prophethood. This is the first scholarly edition of a work by the Bāb to be published in the original language.
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Originally presented as A. Eschraghi's thesis (doctoral)--Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main, 2003. :
1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047406112
9789004140349
Al-Radd al-jamil : a fitting refutation of the divinity of Jesus /
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al-Radd al-jamīl attributed to al-Ghazālī (d. 1111) is the most extensive and detailed refutation of the divinity of Jesus by a Muslim author in the classical period of Islam. Since the discovery of the manuscript in the 1930's scholars have debated whether the great Muslim theologian al-Ghazālī was really the author. This is a new critical edition of the Arabic text and the first complete English translation. The introduction situates this work in the history of Muslim anti-Christian polemical writing. Mark Beaumont and Maha El Kaisy-Friemuth argue that this refutation comes from an admirer of al-Ghazālī who sought to advance some of his key ideas for an Egyptian audience.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004322806 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Sabʿ rasāʾil /
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The history of Islamic philosophy was shaped by many great thinkers over a long period of time. As is well known, the Persianate world played an important role in this, almost from the very beginning. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the city of Shiraz saw the rise of a number of thinkers who together came to represent the 'School of Shiraz' in philosophy. A major figure in this school was Jalāl al-Dīn Dawānī (d. 908/1502-03). A specialist in theology and philosophy, Dawānī's fame reached much beyond the confines of Shiraz, from the Ottoman empire all the way to the Indian subcontinent. Dawānī's religious proclivities have been subject of debate, the question being if he ever really was a Sunnī. It is therefore not without significance that the present volume should contain two works by him on Sunnī philosophical theology as well as three other texts of unmistakeably Shīʿī signature.
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Added t. pages in Roman script: Sabʻ Rasāʻil / ʻAllāmah Jalāl al-Dīn al-Dawānī and Mullā Ismāʻīl al-Xāǰūʼī al-Iṣfahānī :
1 online resource. :
9789004402393
9789646781504
A Qurʼān commentary by Ibn Barrajān of Seville (d. 536/1141) :Īḍāḥ al-ḥikma bi-aḥkām al-ʻibra = Wisdom deciphered, the unseen discovered = Kitāb Īḍāḥ al-ḥikmah bi-aḥkām al-ʻibrah /...
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A Qurʾān Commentary by Ibn Barrajān of Seville (d. 536/1141) is a critical Arabic text edition of a medieval Muslim Qurʾān commentary entitled, Īḍāḥ al-ḥikma bi-aḥkām al-ʿibra ( Wisdom Deciphered, the Unseen Discovered ). The annotated Arabic text is accompanied by an analytical introduction and an extensive subject index. This Qurʾān commentary is Ibn Barrajān's last and most esoteric work, and as such offers the most explicit articulation of his mystical and philosophical doctrines. It synthesizes his teachings, drawn from a wide array of Islamic disciplines, and provides a link between early Sufism and Muslim mysticism in medieval Spain (Andalusia). The Īḍāḥ moreover is the earliest known work of its kind to make extensive use of Arabic Biblical material as proof texts for Qurʾānic doctrines.
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1 online resource (64, 956 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004295391 :
1567-2808 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The Exoteric Aḥmad Ibn Idrīs : A Sufi's Critique on the Madhāhib and the Wahhābīs /
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The Moroccan mystic and theologian Aḥmad b. Idrīs (1749-1837) was one of the most dynamic personalities in the Islamic world of the 19th century. Through his teachings and the activity of his students important Sufi orders were founded which exerted wide-ranging social and political influence, orders such as the Sanūsiyya in Libya and the Khatmiyya in the Sudan. To date, publications dealing with him have especially focused on his biography and particular aspects of his mystical doctrines. In the present work an Arabic edition and translation with commentary of two texts are made available which throw light on Ibn Idrīs' attitude towards the religious-dogmatic questions of his day and age. The first text, Risālat al-Radd 'alā ahl al-ra'y , provides information about Ibn Idrīs' relation to the Islamic schools of jurisprudence, in particular his position regarding the ijtihād-taqlīd debate which was so significant in the 18th and 19th centuries. Like many similarly minded scholars of his time, Aḥmad b. Idrīs categorically rejects the authority of the established schools of jurisprudence and favors instead the application of personal methods in deriving a legal judgement. The second text presented here is a vivid report by one of his students describing a debate which Ibn Idrīs, at an advanced age, entered into with a Wahhābī theologian in the Yemenite city of sabyā in 1832. The text makes clear with regard to which points Ibn Idrīs hoped to establish agreement with the Wahhābīs, and where it was not possible to reach any mutual understanding. The introduction of the present book examines the tumultuous political circumstances in which both Arabic texts were composed and sketches the larger cultural and intellectual context which shaped Ibn Idrīs' world of ideas.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004492004
9789004113756
Early Islam between Myth and History : Al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110H/728CE) and the Formation of His Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship /
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This volume examines the process through which a historical character named al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī was transformed into a myth by several groups in medieval Islam. Al-Ḥasan lived in the city of Basra, southern Iraq, and was famed for his piety, which attracted to him a large number of disciples who went on to play important roles in the formation of several religious trends. The literary corpus (sayings, stories and letters) ascribed to him has been used as a window into early Islamic religious and intellectual thought. But as this study shows, this corpus was largely forged in different periods, in some cases even a thousand years after al-Ḥasan's death. It tells us more about the beliefs of those who forged the sayings, stories and letters rather than about al-Ḥasan's thought and time.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789047416708
9789004148291
Maḥbūb al-qulūb. Volume 2 : Al-Maqāla al-thāniya fi aḥwāl ḥukamāʾ al-Islām wal-ʿulamāʾ al-aʿlām wal-udabāʾ al-kirām mimman lahum al-iʿtināʾ bi-shaʾnihim wal-iʿtibār bi-kalāmihim /...
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In the Islamic world, the writing of biographical reference works has a very long tradition. In the field of philosophy and other rational sciences such as medicine, one could, for example, mention Isḥāq b. Ḥunayn's (d. 298/910) Taʾrīkh al-aṭibbāʾ wal-ḥukamāʾ or Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿa's (d. ca 668/1270) ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī taʾrīkh al-aṭibbāʾ . The present two-volume biographical dictionary of philosophers and physicians of all times thus continues a centuries-old tradition. Its author, Quṭb al-Dīn Ishkawarī Lāhijī (d. ca. 1088-95/1677-78), was a student of the great Safavi thinker and founder of the School of Isfahan in philosophy, Mīr Dāmād (d. 1041/1631). This is also obvious from his spiritually-orientated, inclusive understanding of the various actors and episodes in the history of philosophy. Written in classical Arabic, at times sprinkled with his native Persian, it distinguishes itself from earlier dictionaries in that it also contains many of the author's own philosophical opinions. 2 vols; volume 2.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402287
9789646781757
Tafsīr-i Shahristānī al-Musammā bi-Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār. Volume 2 /
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Muḥammad b. ʿAbd al-Karīm al-Shahristānī (d. 548/1153) was a prominent historian of religions who was well-versed in Islamic theology and the sciences of the Qurʾān. He is mostly known for his Kitāb al-milal wal-niḥal , a ground-breaking history of religions, his Kitāb muṣāraʿat al-falāsifa , a critical exposition of the philosophy of Avicenna (d. 428/1037)-later refuted by Naṣīr al-Dīn Tūsī (d. 672/1274) in his Maṣāriʿ al-muṣāriʿ -and the Mafātīḥ al-asrār wa-maṣābīḥ al-abrār , his partial Qurʾān commentary contained in the present two volumes. The Mafātīḥ al-asrār was written in the final years of Shahristānī's life and clearly bears the stamp of Ismailism, a branch of Shīʿism to which he had been introduced as a young man by his teacher in Qurʾānic studies in Nishapur, Abu ʼl-Qāsim al-Anṣārī (d. 512/1118). Even if the Mafātīḥ al-asrār is a work that remained unfinished, it is a fine and rare specimen of the richness of Ismaili taʾwīl . 2 vols; volume 2.
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1 online resource. :
9789004402300
9789648700435
The book of noble character : critical edition of Makārim al-aklāq wa-maḥāsin al-ādāb wa-badāʼiʻ al-awṣāf wa-gharāʼib al-tashbīhāy, attributed to Abū Manṣūr al- Thaʻālibī (d. 429/1...
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This critical Arabic text edition of K. Makārim al-akhlāq wa-maḥāsin al-ādāb wa-badāʾiʿ al-awṣāf wa-gharāʾib al-tashbīhāt ( Book of Noble Character, Excellent Conduct, Admirable Descriptions, and Curious Similes ) is a substantial work of adab attributed to the prominent littérateur Abū Manṣūr al-Thaʿālibī (d. 429/1039) that consists of a short introduction and three chapters. The first chapter addresses acquiring noble character and excellent conduct ( al-taḥallī bi-makārim al-akhlāq wa-maḥāsin al-ādāb ); the second addresses shunning away from base character and ugly traits ( al-tazakkī ʿan masāwiʾ al-akhlāq wa-maqābiḥ al-shiyam ); and the third addresses admirable descriptions and curious similes ( badāʾiʿ al-awṣāf wa-gharāʾib al-tashbīhāt ). At the end of the text one finds a relatively large collection of widely circulating proverbs ( amthāl sāʾira ) that are alphabetically arranged. Makārim al-akhlāq is in essence an anthology of "good conduct" and of quotations suitable for social and literary discourse. It reflects the three ingredients of adab : behavior, literary culture, and learning. The work is introduced by an analytical study discussing the attribution of the work, the related genres, and the unique manuscript of the text.
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Critical edition.
Introduction in English. :
1 online resource (26, 274 pages) : some color illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789004300934 :
0929-2403 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Rasāʾil-i Ḥazīn-i Lāhijī /
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Born into a wealthy intellectual family in Isfahan, Muḥammad ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib, better known as Ḥazīn Lāhijī (d. 1180/1766), was a particularly gifted child. Greatly stimulated by his father, he received a varied education: from literature and the traditional Islamic sciences to mysticism, logic, philosophy and more. Until the siege of Isfahan by the Afghans in 1135/1722, Ḥazīn lived mostly in that city. He then fled the capital, leading a wandering existence in Persia, Arabia and Iraq. Ten years later and seeing no future for Persia, he left the country for good to settle in India, dying in Benares, aged 74. Ḥazīn is mostly famous as a poet and intellectual who left his imprint on India's Persian-speaking, ruling élites. His attractive prose-pieces on a wide variety of subjects, from Qurʾān interpretation and knowledge of the soul to pearl-diving and the lifting of weights, are much less known. The present volume aims to fill this gap.
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1 online resource. :
9789004401808
9789649073330
Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage /
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The Qur'an is the living source of all Islamic teaching, and is of singular importance to those interested in Islam and the study of religions. Despite this, there exists a long-felt lack of research tools for English first-language speakers who wish to access the Qur'an in the original Arabic. The Dictionary of Qur'anic Usage is the first comprehensive, fully-researched and contextualised Arabic-English dictionary of Qur'anic usage, compiled in accordance with modern lexicographical methods by scholars who have a lifelong immersion in Qur'anic Studies. Based on Classical Arabic dictionaries and Qur'an commentaries, this work also emphasises the role of context in determining the meaning-scatter of each vocabulary item. Illustrative examples from Qur'anic verses are provided in support of the definitions given for each context in which a particular word occurs, with cross-references to other usages. Frequently occurring grammatical particles are likewise thoroughly explained, insofar as they are used in conveying various nuances of meaning in the text.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references. :
9789047423775 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Early Ibadi Theology: New Material on Rational Thought in Islam from the Pen of al-Fazārī (2nd/8th Century) /
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Al-Fazārī's writings are a unique source of information about Ibadi teachings on ʿilm al-kalām and the early development of this branch of religious knowledge. It is for this reason that scholars of Islamic theology are particularly interested in early Ibadi theology. In this volume newly discovered, re-edited texts by al-Fazārī are presented, with previously lacking fragments included, texts that had already begun to offer new perspectives on Islamic ʿilm al-kalām , and on its origins and the sources of its concepts and debating techniques. In their revised state these Ibadi texts represent a major contribution to scholastic theology. They demonstrate how their respective theological debates already took place at the beginning of the second/eighth century and how associated ideas, as well as related sects and treatises, remained current for some time afterwards, thereby contradicting earlier claims that these debates started in the third/ninth century.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004459571
9789004399136
The legend of Sergius Baḥīrā : eastern Christian apologetics and apocalyptic in response to Islam /
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From the eighth century onwards, Christians living under Islam have produced numerous apologetic and polemical works, aimed at proving the continuing validity of Christianity. Among these is the Legend of Sergius Baḥīrā, which survives in two Syriac and two Arabic versions, and appears here in edition and translation. Being a counterhistory of Islam, it reshapes early Muslim traditions about a monk recognizing Muḥammad as the final Prophet by turning this monk into Muhammad's tutor and co-author of the Qur'an. In response to Muslim triumphalist propaganda, it portrays Islam's political power as predestined but finite and unrelated to its religious message. This feature sets the legend apart from similar Christian accounts of the origin of Islam, East and West, which are reviewed in this study as well.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [529]-560) and index. :
9789047441953 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
The polemical works of 'Ali al-Tabari /
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Acknowledged as a leading medical expert in his day, and secretary to a succession of caliphs in the mid-ninth century, the Nestorian Christian ʿAlī ibn Rabban al-Ṭabarī converted to Islam around the age of 70. He then wrote Radd ʿalā l-Naṣārā , a recantation of his former faith, and Kitāb al-dīn wa-l-dawla , a defence of the Prophet Muḥammad based substantially on biblical proof-texts. The range of arguments he produced against the soundness of his former faith in these two works influenced sections of Islamic scholarship for many centuries. These new editions and translations of his works are based on all the available evidence for the texts, accompanied by extensive introductions and studies of their place in Islamic thought.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004309555 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Les generations des Soufis : Ṭabaqāt al-ṣūfiyya de Abū ʻAbd al-Raḥmān, Muḥammad born Ḥusayn al-Sulamī (325/937-412/1021) /
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In his book Generations of Sufis , Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (died 1021), the Sufi master of Nishapur and Shafiʿi traditionist and historian, collected the teachings of 105 Sufi masters who lived between the 2nd/8th and the 4th/10th centuries. Sulami gives a short biography of each master with representative quotations from his teachings. He thereby illustrates the numerous approaches to the spiritual path and the unity of its principles. One of the oldest works of the sort, it assembles the doctrinal foundations from which medieval Sufism developed. It is a key reference which influenced all Sufi literature and even historiography. This is the first translation of a work of this type to be published in a European language. Dans Les générations des Soufis Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī (m. 1021), maître soufi de Nishapur, traditionniste šāfiʿite et historien, collecte l'enseignement de cent cinq maîtres soufis qui vécurent entre le 2e/8e et le 4e/10e siècles. Pour chacun d'eux, Sulamī propose une courte notice biographique et un ensemble de citations représentatives de son enseignement. Il rend ainsi compte de la diversité des approches de la voie spirituelle et de l'unité de ses principes. Cet ouvrage, l'un des plus anciens de ce type, rassemble le socle doctrinal sur lequel s'élabora le soufisme médiéval. Référence incontournable, il eut une influence considérable sur toute la littérature du soufisme et même l'historiographie. Cette traduction est la première en langue européenne d'un ouvrage de ce type.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004396760
Theophrastus On first principles : (known as his Metaphysics) : Greek text and medieval Arabic translation /
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The short aporetic essay On First Principles by Theophrastus, thought to have been transmitted as his Metaphysics , is critically edited for the first time on the basis of all the available evidence-the Greek manuscripts and the medieval Arabic and Latin translations-together with an introduction, English translation, extensive commentary, and a diplomatic edition of the medieval Latin translation. This book equally contributes to Graeco-Arabic studies as ancilla of classical studies, and includes the first critical edition of the Arabic translation with an English translation and commentary, a detailed excursus on the editorial technique for Greek texts which medieval Arabic translations are extant as well as for the Arabic translations themselves, and a complete Greek and Arabic glossary as a blueprint for future lexica.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [481]-490) and indexes. :
9789004189836 :
0079-1687 ; :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.