This study consists of a critical edition of Ibn al-Jawzī’s Kitāb Akhbār as-Sifāt (KAS) along with an annotated translation and introduction. KAS is a critique of anthropomorphic conceptions of God, directed in the first instance against Ibn al-Jawzī’s fellow Hanbalī, but also against Sunnī traditionalists more generally. As an intra-Hanbalīr polemic, KAS sheds important new light on the intellectual fault-lines within medieval Hanbalism, and reveals the extent to which kalām had penetrated the Hanbalite school by the 12th century. In his work, Ibn al- Jawzī’s makes extensive use of kalām, drawing on its technical language and crafting his arguments against anthropomorphism on the basis of the dialectical methods developed within the great theological schools of medieval Islam. The study also contains a translation of al-ʿAlthī's Risāla, a pointed response to Ibn al-Jawzī, written by a fellow Hanbalī from a traditionalist perspective.
Author(s): Merlin Swartz
Series: Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science. Texts and Studies
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2002
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
PART ONE INTRODUCTION
I Ibn al-Jawzī: A Biographical Sketch
II Authorship and Date of Composition
III The Argument of Kitāb Akhbār aṣ-Ṣifāt
IV The Manuscript: A Brief Description
PART TWO TRANSLATION
Chapter I. The Place of Reason in Matters of Faith and the Problem of Anthropomorphism
Chapter II. Quranic Verses Relating to the Divine Attributes
Chapter III. Traditions Concerning the Divine Attributes
Appendix: A Ḥanbalī Response to Ibn al-Jawzī’s Defense of Taʾwīl: The Risāla of Abū’l-Faḍl al-ʿAlthī
Bibliography
Index
PART THREE THE ARABIC TEXT
