330 Georges Tamer
ground of rationality. Rationality becomes, thus, the criterion for the
soundness of the scripture.^3
A counterpoint to this lineage existed in kalām and fiqh, with
scholars such as Ibn Ḥanbal (d. 241/855)^4 and al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/936)^5
emphasizing the supremacy of revealed truth. This line of Islamic
thought gained momentum in the twelfth century with the vast work
of al-Ghazālī (d. 505/1111), whose rationalistic arguments against the
falāsifa were seen as a staggering blow to philosophy, even though
al-Ghazālī substantially included logic in the field of fiqh.^6 After
al-Ghazālī, al-Shahrastāni (d. 548/1153)^7 and Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī
(d. 606/1209)^8 utilized rational arguments to attack falsafa from vari-
3 Ibn Rushd (Averroes): Kitāb Faṣl al-maqāl with Its Appendix (Ḍamīma) and an
Extract from Kitāb al-Kashf ʿan manāhiğ al-adilla, Arabic text edited by George
F. Hourani, Leiden 1959, pp. 13–15.
4 On his position: Laoust, Henri: Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, in: EI2, vol. 1 (1960), pp. 272–
277; Melchert, Christopher: Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Oxford 2006.
5 See Watt, W. Montgomery: al-As̱'ʿarī, Abu’l-Ḥasan, ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl, in: EI2,
vol. 1 (1960), p. 694; McCarthy, Richard C.: The Theology of al-Ashʿarī. The
Arabic Texts of al-Ashʿarī’s Kitāb al-Lumaʿ and Risālat Istiḥsān al-khawḍ fī ʿilm
al-kalām, with briefly annotated translations, and appendices containing material
pertinent to the study of al-Ashʿarī, Beirut 1953.
6 Al-Ghazālī’s views on rationality in relation to religion have been subject of
intensive study; for his position in general, see Frank, Richard: Al-Ghazālī and
the Ashʿarite School, Durham 1994; Ormsby, Eric: Ghazali: The Revival of Islam,
Oxford 2008; Griffel, Frank: Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology, Oxford 2009.
Most recently: Girdner, Scott Michael: Reasoning with Revelation. The Signifi-
cance of the Koranic Contextualization of Philosophy in al-Ghazālī’s Mishkāt
al-Anwār (the Niche of Lights), unpublished dissertation, Boston University
- See also the special issues of The Muslim World 101, 4 (October 2011)
and 102, 1 (January 2012) on the occasion of al-Ghazālī’s 900th anniversary with
important contributions on several aspects of his work, and the forthcoming
conference proceedings Islam and Rationality. The Impact of al-Ghazālī, vol. 1,
edited by Georges Tamer and vol. 2, edited by Frank Griffel.
7 See Monnot, Guy: al-Shahrastānī, in: EI^2 , vol. 9 (1997), pp. 214–216. Al- Shah-
rastānī’s position is best exposed in the treatise: al-Shahrastānī, Muḥammad
b. ʿAbd al-Karīm: Kitāb Muṣāraʿat al-falāsifa, edited by Suhayr Muḥammad
Mukhtār, Cairo 1976/1396; Struggling with the Philosopher. A Refutation of Avi-
cenna’s Metaphysics; a new Arabic edition and English translation of Moḥammed
b. ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Aḥmad al-Shahrastānī’s Kitāb al-Muṣāraʿa by Wilferd Mad-
elung and Toby Mayer, London and New York 2001.
8 See Anawati, Georges: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, in: EI^2 , vol. 2 (1965), pp. 751–755.
Al-Rāzī’s main philosophical and theological work in particular contains his crit-
ical views on philosophy: al-Rāzī, Fakhr al-Dīn: Kitāb al-Mabāḥith al-mashriq-
iyya fī ʿilm al-ilāhiyyāt wal-ṭabīʿiyyāt, edited by Muḥammad al-Muʿtaṣim bi-llāh
al-Baghdādī, Beirut 1990.
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