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Mulla Sadra (572–1640) is perhaps the single most important and influential philosopher in the Muslim world in the last four hundred years. The author of over forty works, he sought to bring to life the whole heritage of Islamic thought, from philosophy to mysticism, and create a more flexible and conciliatory approach to the problems which seemed to dissociate reason from faith. In this wide-ranging profile, Sayeh Meisami reaches beyond historical narrative to assess the true impact of the man and his ideas. This thought provoking and comprehensive account is ideal for any philosopher wanting to uncover the life and thoughts of a man who represents the climax of intellectual tradition at a crucial point in the history of Islamic civilization
This book is a comparative study of two major Shīʿī thinkers Ḥamīd al-Dīn Kirmānī from the Fatimid Egypt and Mullā Ṣadrā from the Safavid Iran, demonstrating the mutual empowerment of discourses on knowledge formation and religio-political authority in certain Ismaʿili and Twelver contexts. The book investigates concepts, narratives, and arguments that have contributed to the generation and development of the discourse on the absolute authority of the imam and his representatives. To demonstrate this, key passages from primary texts in Arabic and Persian are translated and closely analyzed to highlight the synthesis of philosophical, Sufi, theological, and scriptural discourses. The book also discusses the discursive influence of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī as a key to the transmission of Ismaʿili narratives of knowledge and authority to later Shīʿī philosophy and its continuation to modern and contemporary times particularly in the narrative of the guardianship of the jurist in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Although Kierkegaard's reception was initially more or less limited to Scandinavia, it has for a long time now been a highly international affair. As his writings became translated into the different languages, his reputation spread, and he became read more and more by people increasingly distant from his native Denmark. While in Scandinavia, the attack on the Church in the last years of his life became something of a cause célèbre, later many different aspects of his work became the object of serious scholarly investigation well beyond the original northern borders. As his reputation grew, he was co-opted by a number of different philosophical and religious movements in different contexts...
Did modernity arrive in South Asia with British colonialism? Or was South Asia already modern by then? What might have that modernity looked like? The Early Modern in South Asia engages with these questions. It brings together ten chapters, which collectively trace the contours of South Asia's early modernity between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries. They do this by examining the nature of historical change in various domains, including philosophy, warfare, law, environment, politics, violence, religion, and society. The chapters argue that in all these fields, there were noticeable developments during this period, marking a shift from the medieval to the early modern. The introductory chapter contextualizes this by analysing the politics of periodization in history-writing across the world. It discusses the meanings of the relatively new concept of early modernity and the implications of its use for how we understand historical change and continuity in South Asia.
Islamic Thought and the Art of Translation honors two of the most beloved and productive scholars in the field of Islamic Studies, Professors William Chittick and Sachiko Murata. For the past five decades, in over 40 books (monographs, editions, translations, edited volumes) and more than 300 articles, Professors Chittick and Murata have presented us with philologically sound and analytically rigorous expositions of the pre-modern Islamic intellectual tradition, particularly in the areas of Sufism and philosophy. They have done so primarily by zeroing in on the technical vocabularies of Arabic, Persian, and Chinese texts in these disciplines, demonstrating just how important careful reading ...
"Sculpting the Self addresses "what it means to be human" in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of self and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical and mystical thought. Weaving together insights from several disciplines such as religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, critical theory, and neuroscience, and arguing against views that narrowly restrict the self to a set of cognitive functions and abilities, this study proposes a multidimensional account of the self that offers new options for addressing central issues in the contemporary world, including spirituality, human flourishing, and meaning to life." --
This book explores a large variety of topics involved in Arabic philosophy. It examines concepts and issues relating to logic and mathematics, as well as metaphysics, ethics and aesthetics. These topics are all studied by different Arabic philosophers and scientists from different periods ranging from the 9th century to the 20th century, and are representative of the Arabic tradition. This is the first book dealing with the Arabic thought and philosophy and written only by women. The book brings together the work and contributions of an international group of female scholars and researchers specialized in the history of Arabic logic, philosophy and mathematics. Although all authors are women, the book does not enter into any kind of feminist trend. It simply highlights the contributions of female scholars in order to make them available to the large community of researchers interested in Arabic philosophy and to bring to the fore the presence and representativeness of female scholars in the field.
Nasir al-Din Tusi: A Philosopher for All Seasons explores the life and work of the medieval Persian polymath Nasir al-Din Tusi (d. 1274) within the historical and religious contexts in which he was active during the course of his eventful life. The book brings to light the philosophical character of all the different intellectual areas and genres of writing that Tusi experimented with, including: metaphysics, theology, ethics, politics, astronomy, logic, and aesthetics. The author describes one of the most tumultuous periods in medieval Muslim history between Mongols invasions and Isma'ili ascendancy. She illustrates the cross-fertilization of ideas which found their broadest expression in the thought and writings of Nasir al-Din Tusi.
Discusses philosopher Mullā Ṣadrā's commentary on the opening chapter of the Qur'ān. Winner of the 21st International Book of the Year Prize in Iran This book investigates the convergence of philosophy, scriptural exegesis, and mysticism in the thought of the celebrated Islamic philosopher Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1050/1640). Through a careful presentation of the theoretical and practical dimensions of Ṣadrā's Qur'ānic hermeneutics, Mohammed Rustom highlights the manner in which Ṣadrā offers a penetrating metaphysical commentary upon the Fātiḥa, the chapter of the Qur'ān that occupies central importance in Muslim daily life. Engaging such medieval intellectual giants as Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) and Ibn 'Arabī (d. 638/1240) on the one hand, and the wider disciplines of philosophy, theology, Sufism, and Qur'ānic exegesis on the other, Ṣadrā's commentary upon the Fātiḥa provides him with the opportunity to modify and recast many of his philosophical positions within a scripture-based framework. He thereby reveals himself to be a profound religious thinker who, among other things, argues for the salvation of all human beings in the afterlife.
Some manuscripts have been produced for the personal use of their scribe only whereas a number of them are valued as autographs, most have been ephemeral and were discarded. This volume introduces a number of such manuscripts in a comparative perspective, from Japan to Europe through the Middle East. The main concern is the possibility of identifying the typical features of such manuscripts in terms of materials, visual organisation and content.