Early Islamic legal theory : the Risāla of Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʻī /
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The Risāla of al-Shāfiʿī (d. 204/820), the earliest preserved work of Islamic legal theory, has been understood in previous scholarship as either the elaboration of a hierarchy of sources of law (Qurʾān, Sunna, consensus, and analogical reasoning) or an extended defense of the Sunna. Through a careful rereading of this celebrated text, this book offers a comprehensive reinterpretation of the Risāla , in which Shāfiʿī formulated an all-encompassing hermeneutic that portrays the law as a tightly interlocking structure organized around defined interactions of the Qurʾān and the Sunna. Topics covered include Shāfiʿī's creative account of the law's architectonics, hermeneutical techniques, legal epistemology, relationship to kalām , and the role of consensus ( ijmāʿ ).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [387]-399) and indexes. :
9789047423898 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Epistle of the eloquent clarification concerning the refutation of Ibn Qutayba /
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This is an edition of an early Shiite/Fatimid Arabic epistle that includes a controversy pertaining to several issues on Islamic law. Al-Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 363/974), the most famoust jurist of the early Fatimid period refutes the illustious Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889). In his book Adab al-Katib, Ibn Qutayba claimed that it was enough for civil servants (kuttab) to memorize a few legal formulas in order to be able to effectively do their work without the need of long dissertations on law from jurists. In the introduction to his epistle, al-Nu'man claims that without these dissertations the civil servants would not be able to apply the law correctly. Following this, al-Nu'man launches lengthy dissertations on each one of the succinct formulas listed by Ibn Qutayba. The main argument of al-Nu'man is that the only lawgivers in Islam are the prophet Muhammad and the Imams descendents of Ali (until the seventh Imam).
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1 online resource (22, 175 pages) :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004216662 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
Pure gold from the words of Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh =al-Dhabab al-Ibrīz min kalām Sayyidī ʻAbd al-ʻAzīz al-Dabbāgh /
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Around 1720 in Fez Aḥmad born al-Mubārak al-Lamaṭī, a religious scholar, wrote down the words and teachings of the Sufi master ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-Dabbāgh. Al-Dabbāgh shunned religious studies but, having reached illumination and met with the Prophet Muḥammad, he was able to explain any obscurities in the Qurʾān, ḥadīth s and sayings of earlier Sufis. The resulting book, known as the Ibrīz , describes how al-Dabbāgh attained illumination and access to the Prophet, as well as his teachings about the Council of the godly that regulates the world, relations between master and disciple, the darkness in men's bodies, Adam's creation, Barzakh, Paradise and Hell, and much more besides. This 'encyclopaedia' of Sufism with its many teaching stories and illustrations provides a window onto social life and religious ideas in Fez a generation or so before powerful outside forces began to play a role in the radical transformation of Morocco.
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references (p. [933]-944) and indexes. :
9789047432487 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.
al-Sahib ibn 'Abbad, promoter of rational theology : two Mu'tazili kalam texts from the Cairo Geniza /
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The volume contains critical editions of the extant parts of two hitherto unknown theological works by the Būyid vizier al-Ṣāḥib born ʿAbbād (d. 385/925), who is well known to have vigorously promoted the teaching of Muʿtazilī theology throughout Būyid territories and beyond. The manuscripts on which the edition is based come from Cairo Geniza store rooms. They consist of two manuscripts for each of the two texts-testimony to the impact of al-Ṣāḥib's education policy on the contemporaneous Jewish community in Cairo. The longer treatise of al-Ṣāḥib of circa 350/960, possibly his Kitāb Nahj al-sabīl fī uṣūl al-dīn , appears to be the earliest Muʿtazilī work preserved among the Jewish community. The second, briefer treatise also contains a commentary by ʿAbd al-Jabbār al-Hamadānī (d. 415/1025).
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1 online resource. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004323735 :
Available to subscribing member institutions only.