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Abstract This study examines two late 2nd/8th century books that have been edited and published recently: Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh b. Yazīd al-Fazārī (d. c.185/800)’s Kitāb al-Rudūd (The Book of Responses) and Ḍirār b. ʿAmr al-Ġaṭāfānī’s (d. c.200/810) Kitāb al-Taḥrīš (The Book of Provocation). Both texts shed light on the emergence of ʿilm al-kalām (scholastic theology) in early Islam and its relationship to books and treatises on the Islamic firaq (sects) – a relationship which until now has not been sufficiently examined. In comparing these two texts, we focus on the specific topics they share, the methodologies they use, and the technical terms they employ. We conclude that the emergence of ʿilm al-kalām, as well as the Islamic “contemplative disciplines” in general, occurred not primarily, as is often surmised, as a result of external Greek philosophical influence but rather as the result of a politico-theological debate that took place within Muslim communities. We also reconsider the nature of intellectual life during the early Abbasid period.
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‘Abd Allāh b. Yazīd al-Fazārī (2nd/8th century) was one of the leading early Islamic theologians. His works are still among the most reliable and accessible to scholars and this text is a significant new addition to al Fazari’s texts that were previously published (IHC. 104/IHC. 182). This present study is based on a discussion of al-Fazārī’s teachings with the title Kitāb fī al-Tawḥīd, which is a commentary on his lost work by an anonymous North African Ibadi theologian and is unique because it is among the few known works which describe the doctrine of the early Ibadis. The addition of this text to al -Fazārī’s previously discovered writings provides us with further information about the early Ibadis’ theological views; more importantly, however, it also enables us to trace the development of the terminology they used and understand how and why it changed, as well as the intellectual aspects of the Islamic theological debates during the 2nd/8th century. This study successfully establishes that the opinions of this Ibadi school of theology have remained the same from one generation to the next - among the eastern Ibadis in Oman, Yemen and Hadhramawt as well as the western Ibadis in North Africa. It refutes previous speculation which maintained that al Fazārī’s views were on the decline in Ibadi circles from the middle of the 5th/11th century, since the evidence shows that the precise opposite was the case. In fact, this study shows that his theological teachings were still being followed in the 20th century by the Ibadis in Oman and North Africa.
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1 The Book of Rebuttals / كتاب الردود 2 The Epistle to Abū Qudāma and Abū Khālid / كتاب إلى أبي قدامة وأبي خالد 3 The Book of Legal Opinions كتاب الفتيا / 4 The Book of Monotheism on the Knowledge of God / كتاب التوحيد في معرفة الله 5 The Book of Divine Expressions / كتاب العبارات الإلهية 6. The Book about Matters on Which Ignorance Is Permissible and Matters on Which Ignorance Is Impermissible / كتاب ما يسع جهله وما لا يسع جهله 7 The Book on the Categories and Regulations كتاب الأسماء والأحكام
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