In Intellectual Life in the Ḥijāz before Wahhabism, Naser Dumairieh argues that, as a result of changing global conditions facilitating the movement of scholars and texts, the seventeenth-century Ḥijāz was one of the most important intellectual centers of the Islamic world, acting as a hub between its different parts.
Positioning Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī (d. 1101/1690) as representative of the intellectual activities of the pre-Wahhabism Ḥijāz, Dumairieh argues that his coherent philosophical system represents a synthesis of several major post-classical traditions of Islamic thought, namely kalām and Akbarian appropriations of Avicennian metaphysics. Al-Kūrānī’s work is the culmination of the philosophized Akbarian tradition; with his reconciliation of Ibn ʿArabī’s ideas with Ashʿarī theology, Ibn ʿArabī’s ideas became Islamic theology.
Author(s): Naser Dumairieh
Series: Islamicate Intellectual History, 9
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 327
City: Leiden
Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction. When All Roads Led to the Ḥijāz
Chapter 1. The Seventeenth-Century Ḥijāz in Its Global and Local Context
1. The Seventeenth-Century Ḥijāz in Its Global Context
1.1. European Navies in the Indian Ocean
1.2. Iran’s Conversion to Shīʿism
1.3. The Mughal Empire’s Generous Donations to the Ḥijāz
1.4. Ottomans and the Ḥijāz
2. The Seventeenth-Century Ḥijāz in Its Local Context
3. Conclusion
Chapter 2. Intellectual Life in the Ḥijāz in the Seventeenth Century
1. Educational Institutions in the Ḥijāz in the Seventeenth Century
1.1. Madrasas, Ribāṭs, and Zāwiyas
1.2. Libraries, Book-Binders, and Book Scribes in Medina
1.3. Theoretical and Practical Sciences in the Ḥijāz
1.3.1. Medicine
1.3.2. Agriculture (ʿIlm al-filāḥa)
1.3.3. Astronomy
1.3.4. Chemistry (Ṣanʿat al-kīmiyāʾ)
1.3.5. Music Theory and Practice
2. Rational Sciences in the Ḥijāz
3. Isnād as a Source for Intellectual Life in the Seventeenth-Century Ḥijāz
3.1. The Isnād of Intellectual Texts
4. How the Rational Sciences Reached the Ḥijāz
4.1. Al-Taftāzānī’s (d. 793/1390) Works
4.2. Al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī’s (d. 816/1413) Works
4.3. Al-Ījī’s (d. 756/1355) Works
4.4. Al-Dawānī’s (d. 908/1502) Works
5. Conclusion
Chapter 3. Ibrāhīm al-Kūrānī’s Life, Education, Teachers, and Students
1. Al-Kūrānī’s Life
1.1. Al-Kūrānī’s Early Life and Studies in His Homeland
1.2. Al-Kūrānī in Baghdad
1.3. Al-Kūrānī in Damascus
1.4. Through Cairo to the Ḥijāz
2. Al-Kūrānī’s Education
3. Al-Kūrānī’s Teachers
4. Al-Kūrānī’s Contacts with Other Scholars of His Time
5. Al-Kūrānī’s Students
6. Al-Kūrānī’s Affiliation to Sufi Orders
7. Conclusion
Chapter 4. Al-Kūrānī’s Works
1. Al-Kūrānī’s Works (Examined)
2. Al-Kūrānī’s Works (Inaccessible)
3. Works Misattributed to al-Kūrānī
4. Conclusion
Chapter 5. Al-Kūrānī’s Metaphysical and Cosmological Thought
1. God is Absolute Existence (al-wujūd al-muṭlaq or al-wujūd al-maḥḍ)
2. God’s Attributes and Allegorical Interpretation (taʾwīl)
3. God’s Manifestations in Sensible and Conceivable Forms
4. Nafs al-amr in al-Kūrānī’s Thought
5. Ashʿarites and Mental Existence
6. Realities: Uncreated Nonexistent Quiddities
6.1. Classifications of Nonexistents
6.2. The Description of Nonexistent and the Concept of “Thing” (shayʾ)
7. God’s Knowledge of Particulars
8. Creation
9. Unity and Multiplicity
10. Destiny and Predetermination
11. Kasb: Free Will and Predestination
11.1. Good and Bad According to the Intellect (al-ḥusn wa-l-qubḥ al-ʿaqliyyayn)
11.2. Legal Responsibility (al-taklīf)
12. The Unity of the Attributes (waḥdat al-ṣifāt)
13. Waḥdat al-Wujūd
14. Conclusion
Chapter 6. Al-Kūrānī’s Other Theological and Sufi Thought
1. The Faith of Pharaoh
2. The Precedence of God’s Mercy and the Vanishing of the Hellfire (fanāʾ al-nār)
3. Satanic Verses
4. Preference for the Reality of the Kaʿba or for the Muḥammadan Reality
5. God’s Speech (kalām Allāh)
6. Conclusion
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Al-Kūrānī’s Teachers, Additional to Those Mentioned in the Text
Appendix 2. Al-Kūrānī’s Students, Additional to Those Mentioned in the Text
Appendix 3. Al-Kūrānī’s Works Ordered Alphabetically
Bibliography
Index
