Al-Jāḥiẓ And Religious Knowledge - (Edinburgh Studies in Islamic Scripture and Theology) by Hussein Ali Abdulsater (Hardcover)

About the Book

Offers an unprecedented theological investigation into al-Jāḥiẓ's social empiricism.

Book Synopsis

While it may seem paradoxical to combine trust in rational religion with distrust of human reason, this is exactly what a group of understudied Muslim theologians proposed. Known as the Epistemists, they pushed for an inclusive epistemology that broadened the scope of knowledge. They argued that humans can acquire rational knowledge without discursive arguments, through an unconscious process of social exposure. In this, the Epistemists presented a radical alternative to other Islamic conceptions of rationalism, with immense promise for modern contexts.

This book reconstructs a worldview prominent among the Epistemists, and explores how it correlates with their rise and fall as a theological trend. It examines the intellectual project of their premier advocate, al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868-9), offering a systematic reading of his oeuvre as an Epistemist, and situates it in the formative ʿAbbasid moment of Islamic history.

Review Quotes

Professor Abdulsater's monograph deeply enriches our understanding of al-Jāḥiẓ as a humanistic intellectual of the medieval Arabic tradition, and he has written one of the most compelling portraits of him available in the English language. Here, we encounter al-Jāḥiẓ not merely in his usual guise, as a somewhat mischievous theologian with an unrivaled talent for literary prose, but also as a keen observer of humans and their curious quibbles: an astute psychologist and an intuitive cognitive scientist avant la lettre.--Sean W. Anthony, The Ohio State University

This is a most original and distinctive contribution to the subject. A towering figure in pre-modern Islamic culture, al-Jahiz, receives in this work a completely novel reappraisal.--Tarif Khalidi, American University of Beirut