1. Introduction to ‘Classical Islamic Thought’: Change and Continuity
Civilization Studies Program (AUB) CVSP 202: The Monotheistic Traditions from Late Antiquity to the 13th Century  
Introduction to ‘Classical Islamic Thought’: Change and Continuity
Dahlia E. M. Gubara
October 6, 2015

2. I. Introduction: What does the past mean to us today?
What is ‘Classical’ - What is ‘Islamic’ - What is ‘Thought’?

3. II. Late Antiquity, Islam as a Tradition
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

4. Expansion of the Islamic State

5. Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa Khullān al-Wafāʾ wa Ahl al-Hamd
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ wa Khullān al-Wafāʾ wa Ahl al-Hamd wa Abnāʾ al-Majd (the Brethren of Purity, the Loyal Friends, People of Praise, and Sons of Glory)

6. Al-Ghazālī’s Wanderings

7. The Harūniyya, (Seljuk-Ilkhanid mausoleum in
The Harūniyya, (Seljuk-Ilkhanid mausoleum in Tus, near Mashhad, Iran) where al-Ghazālī is said to be buried (

8. III. Common Narratives, Contextual Matters: Our authors, their times, their works, and their reception
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ
Abū Ḥāmid Muḥammad
ibn Muḥammad
al-Ghazālī
Anonymous collective – esoteric fraternity
Renowned figure of ‘mainstream Islam’
Possibly active in the last quarter of the 10th century A.D. in Basra and Baghdad
Born 1058 near Tus, northeastern Iran
Died in 1111 A.D.
Political, sectarian and creedal affiliation unknown
Sunni, Ash’ari, Shafi’i, and close to Seljuk vizir Nizam al-Mulk and the Abbasid court
Other works unknown
Prolific corpus spanning many disciplines (jurisprudence, theology, philosophy and Sufism)
Rasāʾil – encyclopedic, classification of knowledge
Munqidh - Intellectual, autobiographical
Philosophically neo-Platonist and ecumenical in spirit
Critical of falsafa, reconciles legal orthodoxy with Sufi mysticism

9. Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ, Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs. Man before the King of the Jinn (online source)

10. Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ: Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs
Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ: Epistle 22: The Case of the Animals vs. Man before the King of the Jinn:
Al-Ghazālī, Al-munqidh min al-ḍalāl:
The Trial: disputation, debate, proof and the methods of reasoning
Diving into the Profound Sea of Knowledge
Cosmological doctrines (Creation and Creator)
Severing the Fetters of Servile Conformism
Mediation on power and justice (mastery/bondage; tyranny/mercy; truth/falsehood-ignorance)
Deducing the True Meaning of Things
Ethical-spiritual ecology (ayāt Allah, earth as a Trust)
The Primordial Covenant, Prophecy and the Question of tawātur
Knowledge as Ḥikmah
The fable as a form (universal truth, the speech of the powerful vs. the powerless)
The Ḥakīm’s antidote (sickness of the heart)

11. IV. Levels of Interpretation:
Epistemic certainty:
Integrated Methods, Modes of Reasoning
The Ends of Knowledge:
Social: pedagogy, instruction, initiation, social and political order
Individual: happiness, salvation (soteriology -the final return to God, yawm al-ḥisāb)

12. V. Final Considerations:
Reason vs. Revelation? (al-manqūl and al-ma’qūl)
Syncretism and Reconciliation
Philosophy vs. Religion?

13. Postscript – ‘Polymathesis,’ Education, Edification

14. the ‘CVSP Man’