History of Islamic Thought: Difference between revisions

Whereas Judaism and Christianity began as a religion of small groups, Islam developed as the religion of an expanding empire.  Within a hundred years of Prophet [[Muhammad|Muhammad's]] [[Muhammad's Death|death]] in 632 AD, military conquest extended the Islamic world to India, North [[Africa]] and Southern [[Spain]].<ref>Hyman, J. and Walsh, J.J. - [http://philpapers.org/rec/HYMPIT Philosophy in the Middle Ages] - Indianapolis: Hackett, 1973, ISBN 9781603842082 p. 203</ref>

The first stage of this process was the translation into [[Arabic]] of Greek philosophical and scientific works that had been preserved by Eastern Christians in Mesopatamia, [[Syria]] and [[Egypt]].  The translators were mostly Nestorian and Jacobite Christians, working in the two hundred years following the early Abbasid period (c. 800).  The most important translator of this group was the Syriac-speaking Christian Hunayn Ibn Ishaq (809-873), known to the Latins as ''Joannitius''.  The texts were first translated into Syriac, then into Arabic.  Despite this process, the translations were generally accurate, aiming for a literal reading rather than elegance.<ref>Hyman, J. and Walsh, J.J. - [http://philpapers.org/rec/HYMPIT Philosophy in the Middle Ages] - Indianapolis: Hackett, 1973, ISBN 9781603842082 p. 204</ref>   

The next stage was the development of [[Qur'an, Hadith and Scholars:Islamic Theology|Islamic theology]] by the Mutakallimun.  These were divided into the Mu'tazilities and the Ash'arites.  The Mu'tazilities originated in groups that met in Basrah and Baghdad to discuss how Greek philosophical ideas might help to resolve certain theological problems, such as divine unity, and how human beings can be free even though [[God]] is omnipotent.  They also developed proofs of the creation of the world, using Christian Neoplatonist ideas.  The Ash'arites (founded by Al-Ash'ari, 873-935) tried to clarify Qur'anic doctrines.  They denied the existence of any causation except through God, and therefore denied the [[Free Will and Predestination in Islam|freedom of human will]].<ref>Hyman, J. and Walsh, J.J. - [http://philpapers.org/rec/HYMPIT Philosophy in the Middle Ages] - Indianapolis: Hackett, 1973, ISBN 9781603842082 p. 205</ref>

Al-Kindi (801–873) is generally regarded as the first Aristotelian philosopher.  He advocated the independent study of philosophy, and also wrote on [[Islam and Science|science]] and logic.  Al-Razi (865- c. 925), by contrast, defended Plato against Aristotle, who he regarded a corrupter of philosophy. Aristotelianism continued with Al-Farabi (870-930), while Ibn Sina, known to the Latins as Avicenna (980-1037), developed his own school of thought which reconciled Islamic theology with Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism.  

The twelfth to the fifteenth century was marked by the emergence of Islamic fundamentalism, and a reaction to the humanistic and often secular ideas of the [[Golden Age]] philosophers. After the Abbasid [[Caliph|caliphate]] was overthrown by Mongol conquests in the thirteenth century), Islamic philosophy was fragmented in different centres.  In the fourteenth century, fundamentalist traditionalist views, exemplified by the polemics of [[Ibn Taymiyya]], who called for believers to rid Islam of all forms of innovation, began to dominate Islamic scholarship. The same period also saw the rise of Al-Ghazali's 'Ash'arite theology.<ref name="Oxford Companion">Ted Honderich - [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Oxford-Companion-Philosophy-Ted-Honderich/dp/0198661320 Oxford Companion to Philosophy] - Oxford University Press, 1995, ISBN 9780198661320 (article 'Islamic Philosophy')</ref>

The most recent period (the early seventeenth century to the present day) is still distinguished by a scholastic method and style,<ref name="Oxford Companion"></ref> and mostly fails to engage with ideas of modernity. However Abdallah Laroui (1976), who has noted the contrast between Islam and modernity, has advocated the adoption of Westernization as the appropriate strategy for the Islamic world.<ref>[http://www.muslimphilosophy.com/ip/rep/H008.htm "Islamic philosophy, modern"] - Islamic Philosophy Online</ref>