This work by Qusṭā Ibn Lūqā, the only known health guide for the pilgrim to Mecca, discusses in a concise and logical manner the best regime for the traveller, the diseases which may befall him and their treatment. It is an eloquent witness to the author's profound knowledge of the works of ancient physicians, especially those of the Byzantine physician Paul of Aegina. After an exposition of the best regimen for the traveller, Qusṭā mentions the different diseases which may befall him, namely, fatigue, earache, diseases of the bronchial tubes and those caused...

Al-Fārābī and Aristotelian Syllogistics deals with an important chapter in the history of Aristotelian logic in early medieval Islam and offers a unique and comprehensive analysis of the writings of the outstanding Muslim philosopher Abū Nasr al-Fārābī (d. 950/51). The first part focuses on a wide range of subjects relating to syllogistic theory proper; the second part deals with its application in the context of Islamic law and theology, and concludes with an in-depth analysis of the way in which Aristotelian logic came to be integrated into Muslim...

An Islamic Response to Greek Astronomy is an edition, translation of and commentary on the astronomical work of the fourteenth-century Central Asian religious scholar sadr al-Sharī'a al-Bukhārī. sadr al-Sharī'a develops the works of the thirteenth-century Maragha researchers, which set the tone for the astronomical research until the eventual demise of Ptolemaic astronomy. This work elucidates the development and achievement of the long tradition of reforming Ptolemaic astronomy. It corroborates other evidence that scientific creativity persisted well beyond the...

Al-Māturīdī (d. 944 CE), the prominent ḥanafī scholar from Samarqand, succeeded in formulating a theological doctrine which is widely accepted in Sunnī Islam to this day. The present volume examines his teachings by describing their principal characteristics and situating them in the history of kalām. The first part investigates the development of ḥanafī thought in Transoxania before Māturīdī's time. The second part deals with the other religious groups (in particular the Mu'tazilites) which emerged in this area during his...

In Ethical Theories in Islam, the author has given a typology of Islamic ethics, without overlooking altogether the chronological development. Four such types of ethical theory have been isolated: the scriptural, the theological, the philosophical and the religious. The first edition has already been favourably reviewed by scholars in Europe, America and the Middle East, as a significant contribution to a little-studied subject. This second edition contains extra material from Ibn Sīnā's writings, translated into English for the first time. The book should be of...

The World of Ibn ṭufayl consists of ten essays by scholars in different fields in Arab-Islamic studies on Ibn ṭufayl's ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān, one of the most extraordinary works of medieval Arabic literature, and a text with important dimensions in social and intellectual history, literature, mysticism, philosophy, medicine and science. Most of the essays were presented at a groundbreaking conference at the Wellcome Institute in London, which marked the first attempt at a critical assessment of any medieval Arabic text by drawing together scholars...

This book contains the updated papers of an international symposium "The Qur'an as Text" which was held at the University of Bonn in November 1993. This collection intends to break away from the 19th-century paradigm of "influences," which seems largely exhausted but still dominates Qur'anic studies. Instead, this collection focuses on the literary, the intertextual and the receptional aspects of the Qur'anic text. A new approach to the holy book of Islam in the light of modern hermeneutics which is based on modern methods of literary history, text-linguistics, and aesthetics can open the...

The present work deals with anthropomorphism and interpretation of the Qur'ān in the theology of the Zaidite imam al-Qāsim ibn Ibrāhīm (785-860 A.D.). The edition and annotated translation of al-Qāsim's epistle Kitāb al-mustarshid is preceded by a detailed introduction, which treats early Islamic theology. For the abrogation of the literal meanings of Qur'ānic anthropomorphic expressions, the author uses similes, idioms and phrases in Arabic, pieces of evidence from ancient Arabic poetry and rational arguments which often reflect the Mu'tazilite ways...

This volume focuses on the theological views of the Imāmī Shī'ite theologian Muḥammad b. 'Alī b. Ibrāhīm b. Abī Jumhūr al-Aḥsā'ī (d. after 906/1501), who combined traditional thought of the Mu'tazilites with the philosophical tradition of Ibn Sīnā (d. 428/1037), with the Illuminationist (Ishrāqī) tradition of Shihāb al-Dīn al-Suhrawardī (executed in 587/1191 and his followers, and with the speculative mysticism of Ibn al-'Arabī (d. 638/1204). Ibn Abī Jumhūr moreover attempted...

The judgement of apostasy on the last page of al-Ghazālī's Incoherence of the philosophers has long been considered as one of the key reasons for the decline of peripatetic philosophy in Islam. This study is an inquiry into the different elements of Islamic thought which led to al-Ghazālī's conviction that three important conclusions of peripatetic philosophy must be considered as heresy. In its four parts, the volume describes the early usage of the judgement on apostates in Islam and the legal and theological developments, which led to its application against the...