Šihāb al-Dīn al-Marǧānī on the Divine Attributes: A Study in Kalām in the 19th Century

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, very vibrant debates regarding the question of the divine attributes (ṣifāt), one of the central issues in the history of Islamic theology, arose among the Muslims of the Russian Empire. A continuation of pre-existing debates taking place at the time in Cen...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Arabica
Main Author: Spannaus, Nathan (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2015
In: Arabica
Further subjects:B Kalām divine attributes al-Taftāzānī al-Qūrṣāwī Russia Tatars Central Asia Avicennian Turn ṣifāt theology post-classical period
B Kalām attributs divins al-Taftāzānī al-Qūrṣāwī Russie Tatars Asie centrale tournant avicennien ṣifāt théologie période post-classique
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, very vibrant debates regarding the question of the divine attributes (ṣifāt), one of the central issues in the history of Islamic theology, arose among the Muslims of the Russian Empire. A continuation of pre-existing debates taking place at the time in Central Asia, the controversy over the attributes revolved around the question of their ontological relationship to the divine essence (ḏāt), and whether the predominant view, that of Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī, rendered the attributes too distinct from the essence, thus violating God’s oneness. One very prominent participant was the Tatar scholar Šihāb al-Dīn al-Marǧānī (d. 1889), who crafted a sophisticated critique of Taftāzānī and articulated a novel view of the attributes, based on the work of another Tatar scholar, Abū Naṣr Qūrṣāwī (d. 1812). This paper argues that not only do these debates show the continuation of the kalām tradition into the modern era, but they also represent important developments of that tradition in their own right, against the view that post-classical theology had become repetitive and derivative.
ISSN:1570-0585
Contains:In: Arabica
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15700585-12341335