evil. Prominent thinkers of the Ashari tradition
include Abu Bakr al-Baqillani (d. 1013), Imam
al-Haramayn al-Juwayni (d. 1085), abU hamid
al-ghazali (d. 1111), and Fakr al-Din al-Razi
(d. 1209). Despite its defense of Sunni doctrine,
it was viewed with suspicion by literal-minded
jurists nevertheless, especially Ibn Hanbal’s fol-
lowers. An important exception was ibn taymiyya
(d. 1328), who used kalam arguments to uphold
the Hanbali view that all true knowledge about
God was to be found in the Quran and hadith.
The Maturidi tradition of kalam, named after Abu
Mansur Muhammad al-Maturidi (d. 935), arose as
a rival to the Asharis in eastern Islamic lands. Its
adherents held views similar to those of the Asha-
ris, but in time they accepted free will and human
responsibility for deeds. Unlike the Asharis, many
of whom were members of the shaFii legal
school, Maturidis belonged exclusively to the
hanaFi legal school. Mutazilism, the oldest of
the three major kalam traditions, entered a decline
in the 10th century from which it was unable to
recover. Its key doctrines, however, were accepted
as principles of faith in Twelve-Imam Shiism.
Theological topics were also addressed in
Islamic philosophy, as well as in esoteric Shii
and Sufi writings. Unlike the theologians, Mus-
lim philosophers did not limit themselves to the
Quran and hadith in making their arguments.
Instead they maintained that knowledge could
also be acquired from non-Islamic sources, par-
ticularly “the ancients”—meaning Greek phi-
losophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and their heirs,
the Neoplatonists. The god of the Islamic faith,
Allah, became known to Muslim philosophers
as the “Necessary Being” and the “First Cause.”
Among the first Muslim thinkers to articulate a
philosophical understanding of God, creation,
and humanity was al-Kindi (d. 866), known as
the “Philosopher of the Arabs.” Other leading
philosophers include al-Farabi (d. 950), ibn sina
(d. 1037), and ibn rUshd (d. 1198). A number of
these thinkers became known to medieval Chris-
tian theologians. Ibn Rushd, known in Europe as
Averroës, had a major influence on the theology
of Thomas Aquinas (d. 1274) and other Christian
scholastic theologians. These men wrote on a vari-
ety of topics, including mathematics and science,
but it was their views on theological subjects
that provoked the ulama, especially those who
were experts in kalam. Their most controversial
teachings included (1) the world was eternal, not
created; (2) God had knowledge of universals,
but not the particulars of his creation; and (3)
the human soul was immortal, and therefore not
subject to resurrection. All of these ideas were
opposed to traditionist doctrines in Islam based
on the revelation. After the 12th century, the
philosophical tradition survived in the speculative
teachings of shiism and sUFism, but it was never
held in high esteem among traditional ulama and
the madrasa system of higher Islamic learning.
In the modern period aspects of dialectical
theology have been taken up again by Muslim
reformers such as sayyid ahmad khan of India (d.
1898), who called for a rationalist “modern the-
ology” (kalam) in conformity with science, and
mUhammad abdUh of Egypt (d. 1905), who drew
upon Mutazili forms of argumentation in Risalat
al-tawhid (Epistle on Unity). Mutazilism more
recently has contributed to the thinking of FazlUr
rahman (d. 1988), mUhammad arkoUn (b. 1928),
and nasr hamid abU zay d (b. 1943). On the other
hand, radical Islamist movements and ideologues
reject medieval rationalist theology, espousing
views that they claim to be based on a literal read-
ing of the Quran and hadith (often influenced by
modern secular ideologies nonetheless). They
propose to defend Islam against its enemies at
home and abroad through creation of Islamic
governments that enforce the sharia, which they
believe will resolve the injustices and crises faced
by Muslim societies in the modem world. In this
regard, some scholars have compared islamism
to the Liberation Theology espoused by Catho-
lic priests and intellectuals in Latin America in
the second half of the 20th century. If there is
an underlying theological claim in the Islamisttheology 669 J