for 20 years. Most of the Àulama gave in under political pressure from the
caliphs; but opposition was tenaciously led by Ibn Hanbal, the most prominent
hadith scholar, situated in the capital Baghdad itself. Ibn Hanbal became a
hero of the conservatives by enduring imprisonment and threats of execution.
Eventually in 847 caliph al-Mutawakkil capitulated to the political opposition
and abandoned the effort to impose the MuÀtazilite theology. The triumphant
Hanbalis in turn attempted to impose their own position. In future generations
the Hanbalis became one of the leading legal schools, and the conservative
anchor of the intellectual field, taking the leadership in attacking theological
moderates as well as practitioners of philosophy.^7
The defeat of the “Inquisition” was a turning point in the structure of
Islamic religion and intellectual life generally. If the caliph had won, Islam
would have been moved toward a more centralized and bureaucratic church,
less centered on the local Àulama. Rational theology could have become insti-
tutionalized rather than marginalized. Intellectual structures would have more
nearly parallelled those of the Christian Church, centered on rational theology
rather than scripturalism and breeding its philosophical adjunct. Indigenous
theologically based Islamic philosophy displayed its own creative dynamic
through these early generations, developing atomic occasionalism, theories of
free will and of causality, proofs of the existence and nature of God, theories
of time and motion, distinctions among primary and secondary qualities. The
period flashes with themes we associate with Zeno and Heraclitus, and again
with the successors of Descartes. That is to say, Islamic philosophy at this point
parallels developments in Greece and Europe prior to the dominance of Plato
and Aristotle, and again after their overthrow. Creativity was not yet over, for
it is fueled by conflict, and the shifting of external supports brought about a
realignment of positions over the next few generations, and thus the innovative
reorganization of intellectual space. But the center of gravity was pushed
increasingly toward the conservative side. The MuÀtazilites did not disappear
for several centuries,^8 but they were frozen into a defensive posture from which
creative energy had drained. Their decline opened a space in the intellectual
field; and it was this vacuum that imports of Greek ideas now proceeded to
fill. Importing is less creative than indigenous construction. What Eurocentric
history regards as the only worthwhile topic constituted in its time a decline
in the creativity of Islamic networks.
Importers of Foreign Philosophy
Just at the time when the MuÀtazilites were going into their political showdown
and crisis, a concerted effort was made to import the “ancient learning” of
Greek science and philosophy into the Islamic world. It was at this point—the
Tensions of Ideas: Islam, Judaism, Christendom^ •^403