This title examines the forefather of the fourth of the four principal Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the Hanbali. Showing that even in his own lifetime, ibn Hanbal's followers were revising his doctrines in favour of a more commodious Islam.

Ibn Tufayl (1105-1185) was an Andalusian courtier, philosopher, Sufi master, and royal physician to the Almohad Caliphs. He inspired the 12th-century Andalusian revolt against Ptolemaic astronomy and through his sponsorship he was also responsible for the career of the most renowned Aristotelian of medieval times, Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd (the Latin Averroes). In Ibn Tufayl, we see an exemplar of the kind of versatile and pious scholar early Almohad culture wanted to cultivate.

Ibn Tufayl's own intellectual outlook is preserved for us in Hayy Ibn Yaqzan, a philosophical romance that...

Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792) aroused great controversy in his lifetime. More than two centuries after his death, he still elicits strong views. For some he is the model of a pious religious activist who fought to establish a regime of Islamic godliness in the least promising of environments. For others, especially Muslims associated with mystic orders or who belong to the Shi'i branch of Islam, he is a hate figure. Few would contest that he shaped the Muslim world. For over 250 years the Wahhabi movement has rested on the twin pillars of a clear, compelling credo and an...

A comprehensive study of an often overlooked figure in the history of Islamic thought, whose influence on aspects of Islamic law endures to this day

Introduces the life and thought of the controversial religious scholar who has inspired modernists, Salafis, revivalists, and jihadis