philosophy (1 3). This falsafa is attacked by al-Ghazali, who combines the
AshÀarite lineage of conservative kalam with Sufism on the one hand, while
extracting from the Greek imports the tool of formal logic on the other (call
this 3a).
Al-Ghazali’s grand coalition ([1 2], [3a 4]) now becomes the ortho-
dox culture of Islam. Falsafa (except for scholastic logic, i.e., 3 3a) disap-
pears. The remaining rivals are largely branches of Sufism (4): on the one hand
the illuminationist hierarchical theology represented by Suhrawardi on the
heterodox side, and by Ibn ÀArabi among the Sunnis, a combination of Sufi
mysticism with the politicized emanationism of the Pure Brethren (4 1a
3); on the other hand a poetic mysticism which holds itself aloof from intel-
lectual alliances. After 1200 the prestige of Sufism is so high that its follow-
ers can go their own way while virtually all other intellectual factions try to
make coalition with it. The one exception comprises the surviving hadith
legalists, such as Ibn Taimiyah and the Malikite judge Ibn Khaldun, who
produce isolated outbursts of philosophical criticism against the now-predomi-
nant mysticism-cum-logic of the madrasas.
FIGURE 9.1. ISLAMIC FACTIONS AND COMBINATIONS452 •^ Intellectual Communities: Western Paths