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Islamic Theology

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ophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1985); Oliver Leaman, An Introduction

to Classical Islamic Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Jules L.
Janssens, An Annotated Bibliogrphy in Ibn Sina (1970–1989) Including Arabic and Persian
Publications and Turkish and Russian References (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1991);
Parviz Morewedge, Neoplatonism and Islamic Thought (Albany, NY: SUNY Press,
1992); Seyyed Hosseyn Nasr, An Introduction to Islamic Cosmological Doctrines (Albany,
NY: SUNY Press, 1993); William Montgomery Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology. An
extended Survey (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1985); Harry A. Wolfson,
The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976).

Alessandro Cancian

Islamic Theology

A. General Definition
Islamic theology, which is one of the branches of Islamic religious sciences,
is mostly referred to as ^ilm al-kalam (the science of kalam), and in short kalam.
Kalam is usually translated as “theology,” although this rendering does not
express well its scholastic methods. The term “speculative theology” conveys
in a better way the nature of the theological discussions of the mutakallimun
(doctors of Kalam), who used logical argumentation in order to prove some
of the principles of religion (Georges C. Anawati, “kalam,” The Encyclopedia
of Religion, XIII [1987], 231–42). Kalam is only one of the two major trends
in Islamic theology. The other trend is that of traditionalist theology
(^ilm al-usul, the science of theological principles). Since the scholastic
methods of kalam had a tremendous impact on medieval thinkers within the
circles of traditionalist Islam, and also on Jewish and Christian thinkers
(Harry Austryn Wolfson, Repercussions of the Kalam in Jewish Philosophy, 1979)
this survey dedicates its lion’s share to kalam. Nevertheless, the difference be-
tween kalam and Islamic traditionalist theology is also addressed here, since
the boundaries between these two trends were never definite, especially after
the emergence of the Ash^ari school in the first half of the 10th century. The
terms kalam and traditionalist Islam refer to Sunni Islam, which is the main
body of opinion in Islamic thought. Unless otherwise stated, the schools of
kalam and the main thinkers mentioned in this survey are Sunnis (Louis
Gardet, “^ilm al-kalam,” EI, 2nd ed., vol. III [1971], 1141–50).
The use of discursive arguments is Kalam’s salient feature, which is
mostly reflected in the discussions on the existence of God and the creation of

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57 Islamic Theology

the world. In these questions the kalam uses the proof from accidents, which
is based on the doctrine of atoms (the major works on these questions are
Shlomo Pines, Beiträge zur islamischen Atomenlehre, 1936; id., trans. Michael
Schwarz, Studies in Islamic Atomism, 1997; Herbert A. Davidson, Proofs for
Eternity, Creation and the Existence of God in Medieval Islamic and Jewish Philosophy,
1987). Kalam has also a lot to do with apologetics. Influenced by Hellenistic
philosophical and theological thought, it uses various rationalistic tools in
order to defend Islamic doctrines and uproot what it perceives as heretical
concepts, infiltrated Islamic thought (D. D. de Lacy O’Leary, Arabic Thought
and Its Place in History, 1939). Thus, it is tightly connected to the term ^aqida
(pl. ^aqa#id), which stands for belief, creed or article of faith (William Montgo-
mery Watt, Islamic Creeds, 1994).
The goals of kalam, as the mutakallimun themselves define it in a report
given by the Ash^ari theologian Al-Ghazali (d. 1111), are “to grasp the unity
of God, and study the essence of God and His attributes” (Ihya# ^Ulum al-Din
[The Revival of Religious Sciences], I [n.d.], 25). The theologian al-Jurjani
(d. 1413) expands kalam’s definition to dealing with divine justice and escha-
tology (Kitab al-Ta^rifat, [The Book of Definitions], ed. Gustav Flügel, 1969
[photocopy of the Leipzig 1845 ed.], 194). Thus, kalam aims to back up vari-
ous articles of faith, whose origins are to be found in the Qur#an and hadith
(i.e. prophetic traditions), by using analytical methods.

B. The Origins of Kalām

The common use in the Arabic language of the word kalam is word, words,
or speech. How this term came to indicate Islamic speculative theology is
an issue not fully revealed or discovered. There is an almost general agree-
ment within the ranks of modern scholarship, that the dialectical technique
of kalam was borrowed from early Christian theology (Carl Heinrich Becker,
“Christliche Polemik und islamische Dogmenbildung,” Zeitschrift für Assyri-
ologie und verwandte Gebiete 27 [1912]: 175–95; rpt. in: id., Islamstudien,
1924–1932, 432–49, trans. Mark Muelhaeusler, “Christian Polemic and
the Formation of Islamic Dogma,” Muslims and Others in Early Islamic Society,
ed. Robert Hoyland, 2004, 241–58; Josef van Ess, Anfänge muslimischer
Theologie: zwei antiqadaritische Traktate aus dem ersten Jahrundert der Hipra, 1977;
id., “The Beginnings of Islamic Theology,” The Cultural Context of Medieval
Learning, ed. J. E. Murdoch and E. D. Sylla, 1975), while pointing out
Greek (Josef van Ess, “The Logical Structure of Islamic Theology,” Logic in
Classical Islamic Culture, ed. Gustav E. von Grunebaum, 1970; Ibrahim
Madkour, “La Logique d’Aristote chez les mutakallimun,” Islamic Philosophi-
cal Theology, ed. Parviz Morewedge, 1979, 58–70) and Syriac (Michael A.

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Islamic Theology 58

Cook, “The Origins of Kalam,” BSOAS 43 [1980]: 32–43) texts as possible

sources of inspiration (Francis Edward Peters, “The Origins of Islamic Pla-
tonism: the School Tradition,” Islamic Philosophical Theology, ed. Parviz More-
wedge, 1979, 14–45; Louis Gardet, “Aux débuts de la réflexion théolo-
gique de l’Islam,” ibid., 46–59). In the same vein, it has been suggested that
kalam was used to translate into Arabic the different meanings of the Greek
terms logos or dialexis (Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam,
1976) or the Syriac memra (Frithiof Rundgren, “Über den griechischen Ein-
fluß auf die arabische Nationalgrammatik,” AUU 2.5 [1976]: 119–44).

C. The Exponents of Kalām

The exponent of kalam was called mutakallim (lit. speaker, pl. mutakallimun).
The mutakallimun are described by both Latin and Hebrew medieval
thinkers. The Hebrew designation ha-medabberim and the Latin loquentes were
derived from the literal meaning of mutakallim (Lawrence V. Berman,
“kalam,” EJ, 1st ed. X [1971]: 701–03). The mutakallimun were engaged not
only in articulating the fundamentals of Islam in an analytic language, but
also in polemics of both political and religious nature (Shlomo Pines,
“A Note on an Early Meaning of the Term Mutakallim” IOS 1 [1971]: 224-40;
rpt. in: id., Studies in the History of Arabic Philosophy, 1996). The first mutakalli-
mun did not belong to a specific school. Their teachings, if they had ever been
written, did not survive, and only fragments of their views have been pre-
served, mostly in the rich Arabic heresiographical literature written from the
9th century onward. The early mutakallimun were very cautious in not reveal-
ing the foreign sources of their doctrines. Later mutakallimun, when citing
the views of their predecessors, did not actually know the foreign roots of
their doctrines (Richard M. Frank, “Remarks on the Early Development of
the Kalam,” Atti del terzo congresso di studi arabi e Islamici, Ravello 1–6 settembre
1966 [1967], 315–29).

D. The Schools of Kalām

In the end of the 7th century emerged a group of mutakallimun, who were
adherents of the principle of free will, as opposed to the strict predestinarian
view, which was held by traditionalist theologians. This group, the Qada-
riyya (Carlo Alfonso Nallino, “Sul nome dei Qadariti,” RSO 7 [1918]:
461–66), was the forerunner of the Mu^tazila, which is the most known kalam
school (Joseph van Ess, “Kadariyya,” EI, 2nd ed., IV [1974]: 368–72; Henri
Laoust, Les Schismes dans l’Islam, 1965).
The Mu^tazila (Carlo Alfonso Nallino, “Sull’origine del nome dei
Mu^taziliti,” RSO 7 [1918]: 429–54) flourished as two separate schools in

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59 Islamic Theology

Basra and Baghdad from the first half of the 8th century until the middle of
the 11th century (Louis Gardet and M. M. Anawati, Introduction à la théolo-
gie musulmane, 1948). The Mu’tazili theses survived in Zaydi-Shi^i Islam until
the present day, but not in Sunni Islam (Wilferd Madelung, Der Imâm
al-Qâsim ibn Ibrâhim und die Glaubenslehre der Zaiditen, 1965).
The rival school of the Mu^tazila is the Ash^ariyya, founded in Basra in the
first half of the 10th century. The eponym of the Ash^ariyya, Abu al-Hasan al-
Ash^ari (d. 935) was a former Mu’tazili, who used the rationalistic tools of the
Mu^tazila in order to defend the doctrines of traditional Islam and to defeat
the Mu^tazila (Ahmad AmIn, Duha al-Islam [The Forenoon of Islam], I–III,
1952; id., Fajr al-Islam [The Dawn of Islam], 1978; William Montgomery
Watt, The Formative Period of Islamic Thought, 1973).
Another important theological school is the Maturidiyya-Hanafiyya,
established as a definite school in central Asia in the 11th century. Its eponym
is Abu Mansur al-Maturidi (d. 944) from Samarqand (Wilferd Madelung,
“al-Maturidi,” EI, 2nd ed., VI [1991]: 846–47).
The heresiographic literature, written from the 11th century mainly by
Ash^ari theologians, mentions a great number of other kalam schools, whose
existence is questionable (Michael Schwarz, “Can We Rely on Later Author-
ities for the Views of Earlier Thinkers?” IOS 1 [1971]: 241–48).

E. Kalām and Traditional Theology

Most of the activity of the mutakallimun was in the inner circles of Islam,
mainly against Sunni traditionalist theologians. Kalam’s dialectical dis-
course, which gives precedence to human reason in the process of perceiving
God and the world, is supposedly antithetical to Islamic traditional theol-
ogy, which declares to draw its authority solely from Divine revelation,
prophetic traditions and the teachings of the ancestors of the Muslim com-
munity. These epistemological questions were discussed by both the mutak-
allimun and the traditionalist theologians. Further points of dispute between
the two trends were the question of God’s unity, the nature of Divine
attributes, anthropomorphism, predestination and free will (William
Montgomery Watt, Predestination and Free Will in Early Islam, 1948; Daniel
Gimaret, Théories de l’acte humain en théologie musulmane, 1980), theodicy
(Eric L. Ormsby, Theodicy in Islamic Thought, 1984), eschatology, the status
of prophecy and the essence of the Qur#an as God’s uncreated speech (Jan
R. T. M. Peters, God’s Created Speech, 1976).
The division between mutakallimun and traditionalist theologians never
was clear-cut, since kalam’s methods had a huge impact upon traditionalist
theologians. Consequently, the latter embraced rationalistic argumen-

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Islamic Theology 60

tations in their works and public debates (Binyamin Abrahamov, Islamic

Theology- Traditionalism and Rationalism, 1998). Among traditionalist theolo-
gians, the group called Hanabila after their eponym Ahmad ibn Hanbal
(d. 855) is the most conspicuous (Henri Laoust, “Ahmad ibn Hanbal,” EI,
2nd ed., I [1960]: 272–7; id., “Hanabila,” EI, 2nd ed., III [1971], 158–62).

F. Theology and the Qur#ān

The Qur#anic text inspired the molding and refining of theological notions
and formulae elaborated not only in theological treatises and kalam manuals
but also in Qur#an exegeses (tafsir pl. tafasir), written by prominent theolo-
gians such as Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (d. 1210) and Ibn al-^Arabi (d. 1240). The
Qur#an exegete Ibn Kathir (d. 1372) based his tafsir on the theological and
jurisprudential teachings of Ibn Taymiyya (d. 1328). The main theological
themes in the Qur#an are surveyed and discussed in research on Qur#anic
studies (Fazlur Rahman, Major Themes of the Quran, 1980; Tilman Nagel,
“Theology and the Qur#an,” EQ V [2006]: 256–75; Binyamin Abrahamov,
“Theology,” The Blackwell Companion to the Qur’an, ed. Andrew Rippin, 2006,
420–33). Among the theological concepts refined from the Qur#anic text are
predestination and free will (Toshihiko Izutsu, God and Man in the Koran-
Semantics of the Koranic Weltanschauung, 1964), human responsibility (Andrew
Rippin, “Desiring the Face of God,” Literary Structures of Religious Meaning
in the Qur#an, ed. Issa Boullata, 2000), creation (Husam Muhi Eldin al-
Alousi, The Problem of Creation in Islamic Thought – Qur#an, Hadith, Commen-
taries and Kalam, 1968), anthropomorphism (Binyamin Abrahamov, Anthro-
pomorphism and Interpretation of the Qur#an in the Theology of al-Qasim ibn Ibrahim,
Kitab al-Mustashrid, 1996), and ethics (Daud Rahbar, God of Justice: a Study in
the Ethical Doctrine of the Qur#an, 1960).

G. Theology and H. adı̄th

Hadith literature, which is the narrative of the Prophet Muhammad’s life and
practices, contains numerous statements of Muhammad and some of his
Companions (sahaba), serving as a starting point for theological debates.
While traditionalist theologians used hadith literature as a locus of their re-
ligious thought (Livnat Holtzman, “Human Choice, Divine Guidance and
the Fitra Tradition – The Use of Hadith in Theological Treatises by Ibn Tay-
miyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya,” Ibn Taymiyya and His Times, ed. Yossef
Rapoport and Shahab Ahmed (2010), the credibility of this literature was
questioned by rationally inclined theologians who tended to discredit this
literature (Roger Arnaldez, Grammaire et théologie chez Ibn Hazm de Cordoue,
1956). Hadith literature covers almost every topic in theological thought,

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61 Islamic Theology

such as God’s transcendence and anthropomorphic depictions of God (Da-

niel Gimaret, Dieu à l’image de l’homme: les anthropomorphismes de la sunna et
leur interprétation par les théologiens, 1997), predestination and free will (Joseph
van Ess, Zwischen Hadi© und Theologie: Studien zum Entstehen prädestinatianischer
Überlieferung, 1975; Louis Gardet, Dieu et la destinée de l’homme, 1967; Gene-
viève Gobillot, La Fitra – La Conception originelle – ses interprétations et fonctions
chez les penseurs musulmans, 2000; Helmer Ringgren, Studies in Arabian Fatal-
ism, 1955), ethics (Majid Fakhry, Ethical Theories in Islam, 1991), creation
(Ernst Behler, Die Ewigkeit der Welt – Problemgeschichtliche Untersuchungen zu
den Kontroversen um Weltanfang und Weltunendlichkeit im Mittelalter, 1965; Iysa
Bello, The Medieval Islamic Controversy Between Philosophy and Orthodoxy, 1989),
eschatology (David Cook, Studies in Muslim Apochalyptic, 2002) and the nature
of the Qur#an (Wilfred Madelung, “The Origins of the Controversy Con-
cerning the Creation of the Koran,” Orientalia Hispanica 1 [1974]: 504–25).

H. Kalām and Philosophy

Kalam is not based on philosophical speculation per se, in spite of the resem-
blance of kalam’s set of conceptions and areas of interest to that of Muslim
philosophy (falsafa). It has been claimed, however, that kalam should not
be disregarded as an apologetic discipline, since it shares areas of interest
with Islamic philosophy (Richard M. Frank, “Kalam and Philosophy: A Per-
spective from One Problem,” Islamic Philosophical Theology, ed. Parviz More-
wedge, 1979, 71–95). Kalam accepts the Islamic dogma. Thus, the mutakalli-
mun challenged the philosophers, among other groups within Islam, and
labeled them as heretics. The most famous attempt to attack philosophy
is the Ash^ari theologian al-Ghazali’s (Algazel, d. 1111) Tahafut al-Falasifa (The
Incoherence of the Philosophers, ed., trans. and annot. Michael Marmura, 2000).
A rebuttal of al-Ghazali’s argumentation is Ibn Rushd’s (Averroes, d. 1198)
Tahafut al-Tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence, ed., trans. and annot.
Simon van den Bergh, 1978).

I. History of Research
The history of research in the field of Islamic theology is in many senses simi-
lar to the history of Islamic studies in general. The study of kalam is a sub-dis-
cipline of the studies of Islamic history and philology. The interest of Euro-
pean scholars in Islamic theology dates as early as the establishing of the
University of Leiden in 1575. The earliest scholarly efforts at studying Islam
were characterized by comparing and judging Islamic doctrines in the light
of Christian doctrines (Robert Caspar, A Historical Introduction to Islamic Theol-
ogy, 1998). In other words, the study of Islam was not perceived as a scholarly

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Islamic Theology 62

field in its own right. The change occurred in the early 19th century along
with the scholarly efforts taken by European and Muslim scholars in catalo-
guing, classifying, and publishing Arabic manuscripts in critical and uncriti-
cal editions. As the publication of manuscripts of heresiographical works
and theological treatises advanced, kalam was dealt not only in general sur-
veys on Islam (Ignaz Goldziher, Vorlesungen über den Islam, rev. 2nd ed. 1925,
trans. Andras and Ruth Hamori, Introduction to Islamic Theology and Law,
1981; Alfred von Kremer, Geschichte der herrschenden Ideen des Islams, 1868),
but also in the frame of monographs, thus shaping the study of Islamic theol-
ogy as an independent discipline.
Research on Islamic theology in the late 19th century and the early
20 century is characterized by a reliance on heresiographic literature,
th

whose nature (see “sources”) dictates a descriptive historical approach. The

European researchers, trained for the most part in philology and history and
not in philosophy and theology as such, tended to deal more with the history
of theological trends and less with the teachings of Islamic theologians. The
historical approach is well reflected, for example, in the works of Julius
Wellhausen (Das arabische Reich und sein Sturz, 1902, trans. Margraet Gra-
ham Weir, The Arab Kingdom and its Fall, 1927; Die religiös-politischen Opposi-
tionsparteien im alten Islam, 1901, trans. R. C. Ostle and S. M. Walzer, The
Religio-Political Factions in Early Islam, 1975). All the relevant entries of the first
edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, published between 1913–1936, reflect the
historical approach, which dominated Western research in the field of Is-
lamic theology (Duncan Black Macdonald, “Kadariya”; id., “kalam”; id,
“al-Maturidi”; Arent Jan Wensinck, “al-Ash^ari”; Ignaz Goldizher,
“Ahmad ibn Hanbal”; Henrik Samuel Nyberg, “Mu^tazila” – all available in
the convenient version: Shorter Encyclopaedia of Islam, ed. H. A. R. Gibb and
J. H. Kramers, 1995). The relevance of these early studies is defied time and
again, although their importance as introductory works to the study of the
history of Islamic theology still exists.
Research approaches still relevant today are those focusing on a metho-
dological close reading of theological texts. A representative example is
Harry Austryn Wolfson’s comprehensive work on the origins of kalam
(Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam, 1976). Wolfson’s
method of conjecture and verification, which he called “a hypothetico-
deductive method,” paved the way to researches concentrating on the theo-
logical texts, in which references to political developments, if they exist at
all, are provided merely as an aid of understanding the developments in
theology. The definitive study of the early phase of the formation of Islamic
theology is Josef van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert

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63 Islamic Theology

Hidschra: Eine Geschichte des religiösen Denkens im frühen Islam, 1991–1995

(6 vols.). All the relevant entries of the second edition of EI, published be-
tween 1960–2004 (also as an online electronic version), reflect a close reading
of a wider variety of published manuscripts than was available to the con-
tributors of the first version.
It has been claimed that the lion’s share of studies of Islamic theology
from the second half of the 20th century was dedicated to the earliest period
of kalam, while fewer studies were dedicated to theologians of the 11th cen-
tury onward, with the one exception of the thought of the Ash^ari theologian
Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (Algazel, d. 1111), whose works have been studied
by Western scholarship for more than a century (Daniel Gimaret, “Pour
un Rééquilibrage des études de la théologie musulmane,” Arabica 38 [1991]:
11–18). Nevertheless, from the 1980s, the tendency in research is to focus on
the thought of theologians of the 11th century onward.
The work of researchers of Islamic theology, although not specifically
subjected to the harsh criticism pointed to Orientalists in general (Edward E.
Said, Orientalism, 1978), should be understood and evaluated within the
frame of European Orientalism with its faults and virtues (Jean Jacques
Waardenburg, “Mustashrikun,” EI, 2nd ed., VII [1993]: 783–93).

J. Sources
The study of Islamic theology, as other branches of the Islamic religious
sciences, depends upon the publication of original manuscripts in critical
and uncritical editions. The two fundamental works in this area (Carl
Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Literatur, 1902–1942; Fuat Sezgin,
Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, 1967) list manuscripts of Islamic Arabic
works, theological works included, while providing essential biographical
details on the authors of these works. Even today the task of publishing
manuscripts of theological works is a major feature of research. Every newly
published theological work often incites the interest of scholars to pursue the
investigation in the direction which that work offers, while it sheds light on
unknown aspects, trends, and ideas in Islamic theology. For example, in
1962 William Montgomery Watt wrote: “the earliest extant works of Sun-
nite theology in the strict sense are those of al-Ash^ari (d. 935)” (Islamic Philos-
ophy and Theology, xii). Two years later, in 1964, Morris Seale published the
first translation of Ahmad b. Hanbal’s (d. 855) al-Radd ^ala al-Jahmiyya wa-’l-za-
nadiqa (Responsa to two heretic sects), a theological work which precedes the
works of al-Ash^ari in a century, thus contradicting Watt’s categorical state-
ment quoted above (Morris S. Seale, Muslim Theology, 1964). This example
demonstrates that the field of Islamic theology is far from being exhausted.

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Islamic Theology 64

Until the discovery of several original Mu^tazili works, heresiographic

works dated as early as the 10th century were the main source for researchers
in the 19th and 20th centuries to study the earlier trends of kalam and tradi-
tional theology. The major overviews on Islamic theology and particularly
Mu^tazili theology written in the 19th century and the first half of the 20th
century were based solely on heresiographic literature (for example, Israel
Friedlaender, “The Heterodoxies of the Shi^ites in the presentation of Ibn
Hazm,” JAOS 28 [1907]: 1–80; 29 [1909]: 1–183).
The heresiographers, mostly Mu^tazili and Ash^ari mutakallimun, organ-
ized their works so that they were compatible with a tradition attributed
to the Prophet Muhammad, in which he prophesied that the Muslim com-
munity would be divided into seventy-three sects, seventy-two of them
inheriting Hell, and the surviving group going to Heaven. The heresi-
ographers strove in finding seventy-three Islamic sects, thus counting as
separate sects groups of people whose views differed only slightly from one
another (Hellmut Ritter, “Philologika III: Muhammedanische Häresio-
graphen,” Der Islam 18 [1929]: 34–59).
A recognition of the mishaps of heresiography, a literature which pro-
vides only a partial picture of the teachings of theological trends as well as of
their historical development, led to a pioneering attempt to study the mold-
ing of traditionalist theology based on the first Sunni ^aqa#id (creeds, articles
of faith), dated from the 8th century (Arent Jan Wensinck, The Muslim Creed,
1932, re-ed. 1965). Nevertheless, only the discovery of original theological
works or the reconstruction of such works based on later sources, enabled
Western research to validate the biased descriptions of trends and thinkers as
they appear in heresiographical literature (See the above-mentioned works
of M. Cook and J. van Ess; Richard M. Frank, “The Neoplatonism of
Pahm b. Safwân,” Museon 78 [1965]: 395–424)
While numerous extant texts of the two major kalam trends in Islam, the
Mu^tazila and the Ash^ariyya, enable scholars to depict Islamic scholastic
tradition during the period of the Abbasid caliphate (750–1258 C.E.), the be-
ginnings of that tradition during the Umayyad age (661–750 C.E.) are much
harder to establish. The authenticity of a few epistolary texts and fragments
belonging to the reign of Caliph ^Abd al-Malik (685–705 C.E.) (Joseph van
Ess, “The Beginnings of Islamic Theology,” J. E. Murdoch and E. D. Sylla,
eds. The Cultural Context of Medieval Learning, [1975], 87–111), has been chal-
lenged. It has been argued that these writings were pseudepigrapha from the
late Umayyad times, some fifty years after the reign of ^Abd al-Malik (Michael
Cook, Early Muslim Dogma, 1981).

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65 Islamic Theology

K. Mu^tazila
Many researchers were drawn to deal with the Mu^tazila from the second half
of the 19th century, and it is by all means the most studied theological school
in Western research. The attraction to the Mu^tazila can be explained by the
fact that several European scholars favored some of the views of this school.
In 1865, Heinrich Steiner spoke of them as “the free-thinkers of Islam”
(Heinrich Steiner, Die Mu^taziliten oder die Freidenker im Islam, 1865). This
concept, enhanced by the views of prominent scholars like Ignaz Gold-
ziher, and duplicated in dozens of works (for example, Henri Galland,
Essai sur les Mo^tazélites: Les rationalistes de l’Islam, 1906; George Fadlo Hour-
ani, Islamic Rationalism: the Ethics of ^Abd al-Jabbar, 1971), has dominated West-
ern scholarship for decades. The image of Mu^tazilis as free-thinkers was
mainly based on heresiographic literature. Nevertheless, in the late 1920s
Henrik Samuel Nyberg, who discovered and edited Kitab al-Intisar (The
Book of Triumph) by the Mu^tazili al-Khayyat (d. 912) a genuine Mu^tazili
work, which remained the solely-known Mu^tazili work for decades, chal-
lenged this concept (Henrik Samuel Nyberg, “Zum Kampf zwischen Islam
und Manichaismus,” Orientalistische Literaturzeitung 32 [1929]: 425–41).
Henceforth, Mu^tazilis were portrayed as theologians and not as philoso-
phers. Furthermore, the discovery of a large quantity of Mu^tazili sources in
the 1960s, contributed to a considerable progress in studies relating the
Mu^tazila. Nevertheless, studies written before that time and previously con-
sidered as corner-stones in the field, are now considered as outdated (for
example, Albert N. Nader, Le système philosophique des Mu^tazila, 1956). The
entry in The Encyclopaedia of Islam indeed provides an excellent overview of
the updated approaches in research (Daniel Gimaret, “Mu^tazila,” EI, 2nd
ed.,VII [1993]: 783–93)

L. Ash^ariyya
Although the Ash^ariyya (or Asha^ira) is the most important orthodox theo-
logical school, its history and origins have been little studied. This lacuna in
research is opposed to the numerous published writings of Ash^ari theolo-
gians and the Ash^ari rich heresiographical literature. Researches based on
Ash^ari material, mainly focus on themes and doctrines rather than on the
history of the school. An indication to the little known on the history of the
Ash^ari school is the very short entry in the Encyclopaedia of Islam (William
Montgomery Watt, “Ash^ariyya,” EI, 2nd ed., I [1960]: 696). In this entry
Watt summarizes the dominating view in Western research, according to
which the Ash^ariyya was the dominant, if not the official, theological school
in the 8th–14th centuries. This view appeared in a number of studies (Duncan

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Black Macdonald, Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitu-

tional Theory, 1903; Arthur Stanley Tritton, Muslim Theology, 1947; Louis
Gardet and M. M. Anawati, Introduction à la théologie musulmane, 1948;
W. Montgomery Watt, The Formative Period of Islamic Thought, 1973), and was
contested in the works of George Makdisi (“Muslim Institutions of Learn-
ing in Eleventh-Century Baghdad,” BSOAS 24 [1961]: 1–56; id., “Ash^arî and
the Ash^arites in Islamic Religious History,” SI 17 [1962]: 37–80; 18 [1963]:
19–39; The Rise of Colleges, 1981).

M. Māturı̄diyya- H. anafiyya
Not much was known on the Maturidiyya-Hanafiyya before the discovery of
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi’s Kitab al-Tawhid (The Book of Unity) (by Joseph
Schacht, “New Sources for the History of Muhammadan Theology,” SI 1
[1953]: 23–42; the manuscript was published by Fathallah Kholeif in 1970,
and the authenticity of the manuscript was challenged by Daniel Gimaret,
Théories de l’acte humain en théologie musulmane, 1980 and discussed by M. Sait
Özrevali, “The Authenticity of the Manuscript of Maturidi’s Kitab al-Taw-
hid,” Turkish Journal of Islamic Studies 1 [1997]: 19–29). Western research
perceived this school as parallel to the Ash^ariyya (Ignaz Goldziher, Vor-
lesungen über den Islam, 1925; Arthur Stanley Tritton, Muslim Theology, 1947;
Louis Gardet and M. M. Anawati, Introduction à la théologie musulmane,
1948), however without sufficient collaborating textual evidences. Different
aspects in al-Maturidi’s thought are discussed in several researches (J. Meric
Pessagno, “Intellect and Religious Assent: the view of Abu Mansur al-Ma-
turidi,” MW 69 [1979]: 18–27; id., “Irada, Ikhtiyar, Qudra, Kasb – The View
of Abu Mansur al-Maturidi,” JAOS 104,1 [1984]: 177–91; id., “The Uses of
Evil in Maturidian Thought,” SI 60 [1984]: 59–82).

N. H. anābila
The traditionalist Hanbali school has been neglected for years by western
research, although the life and personality of its eponym, Ahmad ibn
Hanbal, were discussed in length for more than a century (Walter Melvil
Patton, Ahmad ibn Hanbal and the Mihna, 1897; Michael Cooperson, Classi-
cal Arabic biography. The Heirs of the Prophets in the Age of al-Ma#mun, 2000; Nim-
rod Hurvitz, The Formation of Hanbalism: Piety into Power, 2002; Chistopher
Melchert, “The Adversaries of Ahmad ibn Hanbal,” Arabica 44 [1997]:
234–53). The Hanabila who, according to their own avowal in numerous
writings, had given precedence to the Quranic text and the teachings of the
Prophet Muhammad, and rejected the excessive use of rationalistic methods,
were perceived by Western scholarship as ultra-conservative or worse, as a

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67 Islamic Theology

mob (Goldziher, op. cit.; Macdonald, op. cit.; Henri Lammens, L’islam:
croyances et institutions, 1926; trans. E. Denison Ross, Islam: Beliefs and Insti-
tutions, 1968). An insufficient treatment of Hanbali manuscripts and an ex-
clusive reliance on Ash^ari heresiography contributed to that unjustified
image. The pioneering work of Henri Laoust (Essai sur les doctrines sociales
et politiques de Taki-d-Din Ahmad b.Taimiya, 1939) has paved the way for re-
searches on the Hanabila, revealing a theological system combining logical
kalam argumentations with the traditional sources (George Makdisi, “Han-
balite Islam,” Merlin L. Swartz ed., Studies on Islam, 216–274, Daniel Gima-
ret, “Theories de l’acte humain dans l’école Hanbalite,” Bulletin d’Etudes
Orientales 29 [1977]: 157–78; Binyamin Abrahamov, “Ibn Taymiyya on the
Agreement of Reason with Tradition,” MW 82.3–4 [1992]: 256–73; Wesley
Williams, “Aspects of the Creed of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal: A Study of
Anthropomorphism in Early Islamic Discourse,” IJMES 34 [2002]: 441–63;
Jon Hoover, Ibn Taymiyya’s Theodicy of Perpetual Optimism, 2007).

O. The Thought of Prominent Thinkers

The most conspicuous developments in the field of Islamic theology are in
reevaluation and reassessment of the thought of prominent theologians. It is
far beyond the scope of this entry to introduce the entire research done on
dozens of medieval Islamic theologians, and we shall have to do with three
examples demonstrating the progress made in research with regard to the
thought of prominent thinkers.
Research on the Ash^ari theologian Abu al-Ma^ali al-Juwayni (d. 1085),
known primarily as the teacher of Abu Hamid al-GhazalI (d. 1111), has
progressed immensely with the publication of critical editions of his works
(Abu al-Ma^ali al-JuwaynI, al-Irshad, trans. Jean-Dominique Luciani,
1938), translations (Léon Bercher, trans., Les Fondements du Fiqh, 1995; Paul
Walker [trans.], A Guide to Conclusive Proofs for the Principles of Belief, 2000) and
researches (Helmut Klopfer, Das Dogma des Imâm al-Haramain al-Djuwainî
und sein Werk al-Aqîda al-nizâmîya, 1958; Tilman Nagel, Die Festung des
Glaubens, 1988; Mohammed Moslem Adel Saflo, Al-Juwayni’s Thought and
Methodology, 2000). These and other works established al-Juwayni’s unique
contribution to the field of rational argumentations.
In the case of Abu Hasan al-Ash^ari (d. 935), the eponym of the Ash^ari
school of theology, whose works have been studied for more than a century
(Wilhelm Spitta, Zur Geschichte Abu’l Hasan al-Aš^ari’s, 1876; Duncan Black
Macdonald, Development of Muslim Theology, Jurisprudence and Constitutional
Theory, 1903; Arthur Stanley Tritton, Muslim Theology, 1947; Louis
Gardet and M. M. Anawati, Introduction à la théologie musulmane, 1948),

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Islamic Theology 68

the whole scope of his thought and its repercussions is far from being fully
revealed (Binyamin Abrahamov, “A Re-examination of al-Ash^ari’s Theory
of Kasb according to Kitab al-Luma^,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 1–2
[1989]: 210–21; Daniel Gimaret, La doctrine d’al-Ash^ari, 1990; Richard M.
Frank, “Bodies and Atoms: the Ash^arite Analysis,” Islamic Theology and Phi-
losophy, ed. Michael E. Marmura, 1984, 39–53, 287–293, just to mention a
few.
Al-Hasan al-Basri (d. 728), an ascetic whose views on free will were
investigated at length (Hans Heinrich Schäder, “Hasan al-Basri- Studien
zur Frühgeschichte des Islam,” Der Islam 14 [1925]: 1–75; Hellmut Ritter,
“Studien zur Geschichte der islamischen Frömmigkeit: I. Hasan el-Basri,”
Der Islam 21 [1933]: 1–83; Julian Obermann, “Political Theology in Early
Islam: Hasan al-Basri’s Treatise on Qadar,” JAOS 55 [1935]: 138–62; Michael
Schwarz, “The Letter of al-Hasan al-Basri,” Oriens 22 [1967]: 15–30), is con-
sidered to be a mile stone in Islamic theology, although the authenticity
of teachings attributed to him has been questioned recently (Suleiman
Ali Mourad, Early Islam between Myth and History: al-Hasan al-Basri and the
Formation of his Legacy in Classical Islamic Scholarship, 2006).

Select Bibliography
Binyamin Abrahamov, Islamic Theology: Traditionalism and Rationalism (Edinburgh:
Edinburgh University Press, 1998); Robert Caspar, Traité de théologie musulmane
(Rome: PISAI, 1987), trans. Penelope Johnstone, A Historical Introduction to Islamic
Theology (Rome: PISAI, 1998); Josef van Ess, Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahr-
hundert Hidschra: Eine Geschichte des religiösen Denkens im frühen Islam (Berlin: de Gruyter,
1991–1995); Livnat Holtzman, “kalam,” EJ, ed. Michael Berenbaum and Fred
Skolnik, 2nd ed., XI (2006), 729–31; Tilman Nagel, The History of Islamic Theology:
From Muhammad to the Present [Geschichte der islamischen Theologie von Mohammed bis zur
Gegenwart], trans. from German by Thomas Thornton, (Princeton: Markus Wiener
Publishers, 2000 [Munich: C. H. Beck, 1994]); Gustav Pfannmüller, Handbuch der
Islam-Literatur (Berlin and Leipzig: Walter de Gruyter, 1923); William Montgomery
Watt, The Formative Period of Islamic Thought (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
1973); Id., Islamic Philosophy and Theology (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press,
1962); Harry Austryn Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge: Harvard Uni-
versity Press, 1976).

Livnat Holtzman

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