C IVILIZATION S TUDIES P ROGRAM (AUB) CVSP 202: The Monotheistic Traditions from Late Antiquity to the 13 th Century I NTRODUCTION TO ‘C LASSICAL I SLAMIC T HOUGHT ’: C HANGE AND C ONTINUITY D AHLIA G UBARA October 6, 2015

I. I NTRODUCTION : ‘C LASSICAL ’ ‘I SLAMIC ’ ‘T HOUGHT ’  What does the past mean to us today?

II. L ATE A NTIQUITY AND I SLAM AS A T RADITION  Two conventional theories on the formation of Islam: ‘Out of Arabia’ and/or the Late Antique Near East  More than an epoch: Late Antiquity as a ‘shared epistemic space’ (a space of knowledge-making)  Balancing the old and the new: Revelation and Prophecy as the linchpin of tradition

Expansion of the Islamic State

II. L ATE A NTIQUITY AND I SLAM AS A T RADITION  Two conventional theories on the formation of Islam: ‘Out of Arabia’ and/or the Late Antique Near East  More than an epoch: Late Antiquity as a ‘shared epistemic space’ (a space of knowledge-making)  Balancing the old and the new: Revelation and Prophecy as the linchpin of tradition

Expansion of the Islamic State

Ikhw ā n al- Ṣ af ā ʾ wa Khull ā n al-Waf ā ʾ wa Ahl al-Hamd wa Abn ā ʾ al-Majd (the Brethren of Purity, the Loyal Friends, People of Praise, and Sons of Glory)

Al-Ghaz ā l ī ’s Wanderings

The Har ū niyya, (Seljuk-Ilkhanid mausoleum in Tus, near Mashhad, Iran) where al-Ghaz ā l ī is said to be buried (

III. C ONTEXTUAL M ATTERS : Our authors, their times, their works, and their reception

Ikhw ā n al- Ṣ af ā ʾ, Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs. Man before the King of the Jinn (online source)

IV. L EVELS OF I NTERPRETATION : Epistemic certainty:  Integrated Methods of Reasoning The Ends of Knowledge:  Social: pedagogy, instruction, initiation, political order  Individual: happiness, salvation (soteriology - the final return to God, yawm al-ḥisāb)

The Har ū niyya, (Seljuk-Ilkhanid mausoleum in Tus, near Mashhad, Iran) where al-Ghaz ā l ī is said to be buried (

V.F INAL C ONSIDERATIONS :  Reason vs. Revelation? ( al-manq ū l and al- ma’q ū l )  Syncretism and Reconciliation  Philosophy vs. Religion?

Postscript – ‘Polymathesis,’ Education, Edification

the ‘CVSP Man’