362 Georges Tamer
theology (kalām) in its theoretical and practical dimensions as known
in Arabic civilization. Thus, Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Khaldūn repre-
sent the utmost convergence of philosophy and theology, theory
and practice, “Arabic Neoplatonism” (al-aflāṭūniyya al-muḥdatha
al-ʿarabiyya) and “Arabic Neohanifism” (al-ḥanīfiyya al-muḥdatha
al-ʿarabiyya).^154
Al-Marzūqī defines Arabic Neoplatonism as the entirety of pre-
modern Arabic philosophy, which he divides into a connective
(al-waṣliyya) and a separative (al-faṣliyya) part. The connective
part includes, with Ikhwān al-Ṣafāʾ (Brethren of Purity) a Platonic
branch, and with the Peripatetics, such as al-Fārābī, an Aristotelian
branch. The separative part, again, includes a Platonic branch with
al-Suhrawardī’s (d. 587/1191) Illuminationist philosophy, and an
Aristotelian branch with Ibn Rushd’s philosophy.^155 Arabic Neohani-
fism signifies
all theological (kalāmiyya) and mystical (ṣūfiyya) intellectual attempts
whose authoritative text are the Koran and Hadith, as Islam is the neo-
ḥanīf religion which goes back to the ‘true’ (ḥanīf) religion following
Judaism^156 and Christianity^157 and the alteration (taḥrīf) they caused, as
stated in the Koran.^158Al-Marzūqī likewise divides Arabic Neohanifism into a connective
part, which encompasses the two branches of pre-Ghazalian theol-
ogy (kalām) and mysticism (taṣawwuf), and a separative part, which
includes the two branches of theology and mysticism, which flour-
ished in the time between al-Ghazālī and Ibn Taymiyya.
Through this structural and historical mapping of Arabic philosophy,
al-Marzūqī aims to define the “reformatory attempts” of Ibn Taymiyya
and Ibn Khaldūn at the end of the medieval period and the beginning
of the Arab Renaissance.^159 He calls their philosophical position “nomi-
nalism” (ismiyya), which he describes as the negation of the jump from
general concepts to universal concepts on an epistemological and an
154 Al-Marzūqī, Iṣlāḥ, p. 13.
155 Al-Marzūqī also subsumes practices like magic and astrology under the cat-
egory of Arabic Neoplatonism: ibid., p. 15, n. 6.
156 According to al-Marzūqī: “al-tawrātiyya,” “Torahism”. Ibid., p. 15, n. 7.
157 According to al-Marzūqī: “al-injīliyya,” “Evangelism”. Ibid., p. 15, n. 7.
158 Al-Marzūqī, Iṣlāḥ, p. 15, n. 7.
159 Ibid., p. 15. The Arab Renaissance begins, according to al-Marzūqī, in the 19th
century following four centuries of decline (ʿaṣr al-inḥiṭāṭ), which he subse-
quently reduces to two centuries, the 16th and 17th: ibid., p. 15, n. 8.
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