Rozprawy doktorskie na temat „Islamic scholarship”

The aim of this thesis is to comprehensively survey and evaluate scholarship, from Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) to the present, on the fate of Islamic science between the eleventh and sixteenth-centuries, and to outline a more adequate scholarly approach. The thesis also assesses the logic and empirical accuracy of the accepted decline theory, and other alternative views, regarding the fate of Islamic science, and investigates the procedural and social physiological factors that give rise to inadequacies in the scholarship under question. It also attempts to construct an intellectual model for the fate of Islamic science, one that examines the cultural environment, and the interactions among different cultural dynamics at work. Drawing upon Ibn Khaldun's theory and recent substantial evidence from the history of Islamic science, this thesis also entails justifying the claim that, contrary to common assumptions, different fates awaited Islamic science, in different areas, and at different times. For the period of Ibn Khaldun to the present, this thesis presents the first comprehensive review of both classical and contemporary scholarship, exclusively or partially, devoted to the fate of Islamic science for the period under study. Based on this review, the thesis demonstrates that, although the idea that Islamic science declined after the eleventh century has gained a wide currency, and may have been established as the preferred scholarly paradigm, there is no agreement amongst scholars regarding what actually happened. In fact, the lexicon of scholarship that describes the fate of Islamic science includes such terms as: "decline," "decadence," "stagnation," "fragmentation," "standstill," and that Islamic science "froze," to name just a few. More importantly, the study shows that six centuries ago, the Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun provided a more sophisticated and complex theory regarding what happened to Islamic science, which was not utilised except in the work of two scholars. The thesis tests the adequacy of the different claims by applying them to four case studies from the history of Islamic science, and demonstrate that evidence for specified areas shows that different fates awaited Islamic science in different areas and times. In view of the fact that Ibn Khaldun's theory is six centuries old, and that evidence of original scientific activity beyond the eleventh century emerged in the 1950s, what would one expect the state of scholarship to be? One would expect that with the availability of such evidence the usage of "decline" and other single-faceted terms would begin to disappear from the lexicon of scholarship; scholars would show awareness, and criticism, of each other's work; and development of more and more sophisticated concepts would emerge that would explain the fate of Islamic science. The thesis demonstrates that this did not happen. It argues that the key problem is that, after Ibn Khaldun, there was a centuries-long gap, in which even excellent historians used simple, dismissive terms and concepts defined by a limited, but highly persistent, bundle of interpretative views with a dominant theme of decline. These persistent themes within the scholarship by which Islamic science is constructed and represented were deeply embedded in many scholarly works. In addition, many scholars failed to build on the work of others; they ignored major pieces of evidence; and, in most cases, they were not trying to discern what happened to Islamic science but were referring to the subject as part of another project. Thus, in this corpus of scholarship, one that contains the work of some of the 'best' scholars, the myth of the decline remains not only intact but also powerful. Convinced of its merit, scholars passed it on and vouched for it, failing to distinguish facts from decisions based on consensus, emotion, or tradition. There are very few noteworthy cases where Islamic science is being represented in ways that do not imply negativity. There are also some few narratives that present more complex descriptions; however, even Ibn Khaldun's complex theory, which is arguably the most adequate in the scholarship, is non-comprehensive. Some modern scholars, like Saliba and Sabra, present a challenge to the common argument that Islamic science suffered a uniform decline. However, in the absence of any significant challenges to the common claims of the fate of Islamic science, particularly that of decline, it is evident that, at the very least, the scholarship seems to offer support to the work of discourses that construct the fate of Islamic science in single-faceted, simplistic and reductive terms.

The aim of this thesis is to comprehensively survey and evaluate scholarship, from Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) to the present, on the fate of Islamic science between the eleventh and sixteenth-centuries, and to outline a more adequate scholarly approach. The thesis also assesses the logic and empirical accuracy of the accepted decline theory, and other alternative views, regarding the fate of Islamic science, and investigates the procedural and social physiological factors that give rise to inadequacies in the scholarship under question. It also attempts to construct an intellectual model for the fate of Islamic science, one that examines the cultural environment, and the interactions among different cultural dynamics at work. Drawing upon Ibn Khaldun's theory and recent substantial evidence from the history of Islamic science, this thesis also entails justifying the claim that, contrary to common assumptions, different fates awaited Islamic science, in different areas, and at different times. For the period of Ibn Khaldun to the present, this thesis presents the first comprehensive review of both classical and contemporary scholarship, exclusively or partially, devoted to the fate of Islamic science for the period under study. Based on this review, the thesis demonstrates that, although the idea that Islamic science declined after the eleventh century has gained a wide currency, and may have been established as the preferred scholarly paradigm, there is no agreement amongst scholars regarding what actually happened. In fact, the lexicon of scholarship that describes the fate of Islamic science includes such terms as: "decline," "decadence," "stagnation," "fragmentation," "standstill," and that Islamic science "froze," to name just a few. More importantly, the study shows that six centuries ago, the Muslim historian Ibn Khaldun provided a more sophisticated and complex theory regarding what happened to Islamic science, which was not utilised except in the work of two scholars. The thesis tests the adequacy of the different claims by applying them to four case studies from the history of Islamic science, and demonstrate that evidence for specified areas shows that different fates awaited Islamic science in different areas and times. In view of the fact that Ibn Khaldun's theory is six centuries old, and that evidence of original scientific activity beyond the eleventh century emerged in the 1950s, what would one expect the state of scholarship to be? One would expect that with the availability of such evidence the usage of "decline" and other single-faceted terms would begin to disappear from the lexicon of scholarship; scholars would show awareness, and criticism, of each other's work; and development of more and more sophisticated concepts would emerge that would explain the fate of Islamic science. The thesis demonstrates that this did not happen. It argues that the key problem is that, after Ibn Khaldun, there was a centuries-long gap, in which even excellent historians used simple, dismissive terms and concepts defined by a limited, but highly persistent, bundle of interpretative views with a dominant theme of decline. These persistent themes within the scholarship by which Islamic science is constructed and represented were deeply embedded in many scholarly works. In addition, many scholars failed to build on the work of others; they ignored major pieces of evidence; and, in most cases, they were not trying to discern what happened to Islamic science but were referring to the subject as part of another project. Thus, in this corpus of scholarship, one that contains the work of some of the 'best' scholars, the myth of the decline remains not only intact but also powerful. Convinced of its merit, scholars passed it on and vouched for it, failing to distinguish facts from decisions based on consensus, emotion, or tradition. There are very few noteworthy cases where Islamic science is being represented in ways that do not imply negativity. There are also some few narratives that present more complex descriptions; however, even Ibn Khaldun's complex theory, which is arguably the most adequate in the scholarship, is non-comprehensive. Some modern scholars, like Saliba and Sabra, present a challenge to the common argument that Islamic science suffered a uniform decline. However, in the absence of any significant challenges to the common claims of the fate of Islamic science, particularly that of decline, it is evident that, at the very least, the scholarship seems to offer support to the work of discourses that construct the fate of Islamic science in single-faceted, simplistic and reductive terms.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Science
Full Text

Considered one of the pinnacles of the arts of the book in the entire history of Persian art, the life of the Timurid prince, Bāysunghur (1397-1433) and his royal library-atelier have been studied for more than a century. Yet previous scholarship, although solid on it own terms, has not combined study of the entirety of production with sustained analysis of individual productions of Bāysunghur’s atelier. Prior to this study, a number of manuscripts were completely neglected, and several others were studied only briefly. What is more, the single extant document describing procedures and progress in the atelier, although well known, demanded further clarification on various levels. This dissertation discusses in six chapters the operation and productions of the library with particular attention paid to its highlight, Bāysunghur’s famous Shāhnāma. After an introduction to the field and an overview of previous studies, I turn to the report of the head of the atelier, clarifying some technical terms and establishing the date of the report. Secondly, the corpus of Bāysunghurī productions is examined chronologically and in relation to the librarian’s report, with individual manuscripts analysed with regard to their textual and aesthetic traits and their placement in an art historical context. Next, the Shāhnāma of Bāysunghur, which for many years has been inaccessible for close scholarly study, receives extended treatment. The final chapter presents a discussion of the textual and aesthetic content of the corpus and reconsiders the role of the atelier supervisor. The overall aim is to enhance and extend understanding of the arts of the book in a unique royal library, that of Prince Bāysunghur.

The thesis examines the level of historical analysis in the works of two third/ninth century Muslim historians, al-Baladhuri and at-Tabari, including their underlying legal, political and socio-economic concerns as manifested in their narratives. By comparing and contextualising their histories regarding the caliphate of ‘Umar, in relation to their social institutions and scholarly disciplines, the purpose is to highlight the subjective agency of the historians as well as the structure of the historiographical discourse in which they formulated their narratives. Based on the notion of discourses as well-defined areas of social fact that defines the forms of (historical) knowledge in societies, the thesis applies de Certeau’s theory of discourses in order to analyse the formation of historical discourses in relation to social institutions and scholarly traditions. By linking the narrative differences to the historians’ scholarly contexts and political concerns, the thesis also show their subjective agency to form certain narratives of history depending on political and scholarly interests, although expressed in the form of the khabar-tradition of ‘Abbasid period. It is argued that the narratives represent attempts to explain social and economic factors involved in civilisational history by means of the accumulated body of what in modern scholarship is labeled “religious knowledge”. Thereby, it also problematises current debates on the level of analytical thinking in early Muslim historiography and suggest new approaches to the subject by discourse analysis.

The biographical details of the 7828 individuals listed in the biographical dictionary known as the Ta'rikh Baghdad were entered in a database and used to create a profile of the hadith community of Baghdad. The thesis explains how the database was constructed and shows how the data can be used. Evidence derived from the many references to colleagues and relatives in the biographies made it possible to date most of the undated biographies, and to construct a chronological framework within which information on the origins, occupations, tribes and other personal attributes of the Khatib's subjects could be analysed. Changes in the frequency of these attributes over time were related to conversion rates, immigration, and the popular appeal of hadith study. The thesis also demonstrates the usefulness of the fortuitously dated topographical references found in the biographies. These were used with maps to show changes in residence patterns over the 320 years covered by the Ta'rikh Baghdad.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Saudi Arabia is a relatively young country, founded less than a century ago; therefore, the distinctiveness of its education system is still evolving. A challenge facing Saudi education is to be found in its current reliance on mutually exclusive educational paradigms. On the one hand, there is a strong focus on the provision of Western style formal science education and, on the other hand, the traditionalist focus on Islamic studies concerned with religious and spiritual education. Initially founded on a British paradigm, yet continuing to be locked into its conservative Islamic roots, Saudi education has experienced a conflict between a Western reliance on reason, rationality, and formal science, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, universal Islamic values such as religiosity, strong moral character, and spirituality. Neither of these paradigms is particularly disposed to prioritizing gifted education. Saudi Arabia, therefore, has an urgent need to resolve the tension created by these mutually exclusive paradigms, and especially to address more satisfactorily the need to prioritize gifted education, as the education of the most gifted is clearly a major strategy for advancing any nation. In an attempt to address this issue, this thesis will provide an analysis of the body of thought and research in both the Islamic and Western scholarly traditions, as they relate to the concept of giftedness, and how these might be applied practically to developing a stronger form of gifted education for Saudi students in the current era. The conjunction of these scholarships is considered necessary, granted that these are the two traditions that have influenced Saudi culture most obviously in recent times. The thesis will focus on the similarities and differences between the two scholarships concerning relevant and essential concepts such as wisdom, knowledge, intellect and intelligence, and the diverse forms of intelligence recognized nowadays, such as emotional, spiritual, and moral intelligences. By employing the Habermasian methodology of “three ways of knowing”, the researcher aims to uncover parallels and similarities in the seemingly conflicting Western and Islamic scholarships in order to develop an integrated approach to giftedness and education that can be derived from the reconciliation of these two traditions. Furthermore, the thesis will propose workable solutions for the Saudi Arabian educational system as to the efficient implementation of those ideas. The implications of this unified approach, the challenges for its practical implementation, and the consequences for teachers, students, and the overall educational structure of Saudi Arabia, are provided in the final sections of the study.

The label Salafee-Jihaadee has been used to categorize Islamic groups that espouse violence against the West and Muslim regimes. The typology of Salafee- Jihaadee is met with vehement disapproval and criticism from adherents to Salafism. For this reason, the portrayal of Salafees as violent extremists requires scrutiny. This study aims to make a unique contribution to knowledge of Salafism by surveying an extensive literature review, supplemented by interviews of known Salafee clerics based upon the premise that Salafism is an antidote to Islamic extremism rather than a cause of violent jihaad and terror. Furthermore, this research aims to offer new insight into existing literature and theory regarding Salafism. By re-examining current theory this research attempts to show that Salafism is an antidote to violent extremism. Therefore, there is a clear need to explore the relationship between Salafism, violent extremism, and takfeerism. In chapter one Salafism is defined and its key features as a movement are characterized and evaluated. Chapter two analyzes Salafees’ view and role in denouncing violence and extremism. Chapter three introduces alternative assessments of Salafism as a movement and evaluates the arguments put forth by its critics. Chapter four investigates Salafist perceptions of pluralism particularly in Western non-Muslim societies. Chapter five details the role of Salafees and their counter arguments to extremism. The final chapter details the conclusions of the research, which indicate that Salafism is not a precursor to violence, but rather the efforts of Salafee scholars offer effective counter-narratives to the jihaadeetakfeeree paradigm.
Old Testament and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
D. Litt. et Phil. (Islamic Studies)

This dissertation analyzes the education of Muslim leaders in accredited North American institutions. Currently, the only accredited programs that train Muslim leaders in the United States and Canada are Protestant Christian seminaries. Based on ethnographic research conducted at Hartford Seminary (Hartford, Connecticut), Emmanuel College of Victoria University in the University of Toronto (Toronto, Ontario), and Bayan Claremont (Claremont, California), I analyze the impact of multifaith educational models on the development of North American Muslim leaders, such as Muslim chaplains, pastors, and spiritual caregivers. I examine the various rationales provided by the institutions in question for the establishment of Muslim leadership training programs at Christian seminaries, as well as Muslim students’ justifications for studying at these institutions. Subsequently, I argue that these programs depend on multiple forms of “translation” that render members of distinct religious traditions comprehensible to one another. These multifaith programs require translations of space in order to accommodate the practical needs of members of diverse religious backgrounds, and to generate experiences of inclusivity. I also examine curricular translations, specifically focusing on translations of “the spiritual,” given the centrality of the concept within the professional field of chaplaincy. Finally, I analyze translations of debates about gender and authority in Islam into multifaith classrooms. These various negotiations make apparent that the burdens of translation are not equally shared. Within the Protestant milieus in which these Muslim leadership programs take shape, the work of Muslim students is ultimately framed and evaluated within a setting where Christianity provides the overwhelming “logic” of the field. This dissertation thus reveals the inculcation of norms of Muslim authority that align with liberal Christian values, including but not limited to: religious individualism, spirituality (versus legalism), democracy, non-hierarchical forms of authority, ecumenism, and interfaith relationship-building.

D.Phil. (Sociology)
Increasingly religion is recognised within public debate, as realising the post-secular according to Habermas. Furthermore for Habermas citizen participation is possible via publics that are literary which operate within the public sphere that is in turn open to all citizens. On the other hand when individuals, while being religious, are educated in so called closed Islamic educational institutions, it has been argued that they retreat from public life. In effect this would mean that although Muslims may be citizens with access to the public sphere, when they choose to be educated in Islamic institutions participation in debate is inhibited. Institutions of Islamic education for women, where secular education is regarded to have less importance, are especially noted to eschew participation in national life. Learners and parents at institutions of Islamic education are however shown to desire involvement in a broader social life, but also maintain their Islamic values and principles. This thesis thus asks if Islamic education for women can allow for the expression of post-secular citizenship. The secularisation theory, deprivatisation, as well as the post-secular construct as defined in this thesis are unable to explain how individuals, while they are religious, may be able to participate in public life. Weber‟s thesis in the Protestant Ethic and Spirit of Capitalism illustrates how individuals while they are religious can direct public debate. Protestants were able to do so due to the fact that their rational religious ethic altered their behaviour according to a particular set of patterned actions. A catalyst to patterned action premised on religion, according to Weber, is doctrinal development – the systematising of religious concepts within religious texts – in particular canonical and dogmatic texts or writing. In addition, vernacular writings are also established as an element of doctrinal development, specifically its ability to communicate a set pattern of behaviour to the laity. In the process of developing a doctrine, individuals also constitute a literary public because both require similar activities – writing texts and then reading as well as discussing them. The thesis then contends that one way to assess whether Islamic education can allow for post-secular citizenship is to determine whether it contributes to doctrinal development. In this way those who are educated in Islamic education institutions could participation in the public sphere and express post-secular citizenship. The Deobandi education movement, demonstrated to be a dominant Islamic doctrine in South Africa in relation to public participation, is then found to be involved in doctrinal development. An effect of doctrinal development, the rationalisation of religion, realises a set pattern of action. Doctrinal development can thus also spawn Muslim publics – those who act according to an interpretation of Islam in a public space. The thesis relates, from literature on women‟s Deobandi institutions, that patterned behaviour intent on engendering a particular interpretation of Islamic womanhood can be seen as reflected in the public sphere. Further research at Deobandi Islamic education institutions for women is thus advocated to explore the phenomenon. Data were gathered at an institution of Islamic education for adolescent women, Warda Madrasa (WM), finding a strong association with the Deobandi education movement. In addition a set pattern of action or behaviour is endorsed at WM via a particular corpus of texts. Findings from the data presented that was gathered at WM strongly tie the institution to the development of a doctrine, Muslim public and literary public. Moreover the findings point to an additional element in doctrinal development, through patterned action – specifically purdah, engendered at institutions such as WM. Purdah allows the body to be read like a book; to become a bodily text and thus bringing an interpretation of Islam into a public space and directing debate in the public sphere. As such, the thesis concludes, Islamic education for women in South Africa can allow for the expression of post-secular citizenship.

The intellectual life during the Ottoman Empire – which came to dominate large parts of the Muslim world from the fifteenth to the end of the nineteenth century CE – has received relatively limited attention in modern scholarship. This study is a historical investigation of an intellectual debate between the two major schools of Islamic theology (Ash‛arism and Māturīdism) which by the eighteenth century had become a prominent theme in Ottoman scholarly literature. Māturīdism is one of two schools that dominated Islamic theology after the disintegration of the rationalist school of the Mu‛tazilah. The other school, Ash‛arism, eventually became the common doctrine among followers of the Shāfi‛ī and Mālikī schools of law, while Māturīdism became, almost exclusively, the theology of the Ḥanafis. Both schools wrote in the name of Sunnī orthodoxy (ahl al-Sunna wa al-jama‛a) and took a middle course between the doctrines of the Mu‛tazilah and the literalists, attempting to achieve a balance between reason (‛aql) and revelation (naql). Despite the sheer similarity between the two schools in terms of overall objectives, pioneers of Māturīdism during the school’s formative period (ninth – thirteenth century) methodically objected to Ash‛arī positions over a number of problems – including, the conception of faith (imān), doctrine of predestination (qadar), the punishment of sins, and God’s active attributes (ṣifāt al-‘af‛āl). By the end of the fourteenth century, Ash‛arism was recognized as the universal authority on mainstream theological discourses – having attracted the greater number of followers, and produced extensive and systematic theological canon which addressed problems from philosophy, logic and natural science. Based on extensive historical and bibliographical research – including a number of previously unpublished manuscripts – this study traces Ottoman scholars’ attitude towards the school of Ash‛arī in three phases. The first is the classical Ottoman phase (mid. fourteenth – end of fifteenth century) which saw the persistence of the Ash‛arī paradigm in Ottoman theological scholarship; this study found that – although Ḥanafism was the common and officially-sanctioned school of Law – early Ottoman Ḥanafī theological treatises display greater inclines to Ash‛arism rather than Ḥanafism’s traditional doctrine of Māturīdī. The second phase covers the sixteenth century which witnessed a growing interest among Ottoman theologians to affirm the ‘sound’ doctrine of Sunnism in strict concord with the theology of Abū Ḥanīfa as presented in classical Māturīdī texts. The disputes with Ash‛arī were also brought into attention. But, in the absence of a new appraisal of theological problems from an exclusively Māturīdī perspective, on the disputes with Ash‛arī, Ottoman theologians remained largely within the radius of Ash‛arism. Towards the end of the sixteenth century, this situation is inverted at the hand of Istanbul-based scholar Aḥmad Bayāḍīzādah who produced his influential Ishārāt al-marām – an extensive theological treatise which sought to defend Māturīdism over fifty disputed problems with Ash‛arism and to restore the status of Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī as the foremost theologian of Islam. The third phase covers the period between the early seventeenth century, towards the final years of the empire in the end of the nineteenth century whereby Ottoman scholars produced numerous works – varying in size and scope – with Ash‛arī-Māturīdī debates as their primary subject-matter. This study begins with a comparative historical background of the emergence of Ash‛arism and Māturīdism, followed by a discussion of key theological disputes as presented in authoritative pre-Ottoman texts. It then attempts to examine the extent to which Ash‛arism influenced early Ottoman theological discourses, and the intellectual context which saw the emergence of a late Ottoman Māturīdī canon. Finally, the study documents nearly forty works on Ash‛arī-Māturīdī disputations that were produced between the seventeenth and late nineteenth century, amounting to the establishment of a novel genre of later Islamic theological literature.

Mathematics of the Islamic medieval world is still not sufficiently studied. As a result, a goldmine of Islamic medieval books and materials lie unexplored. One manuscript that certainly deserves attention is al-Bāhir fi’l-Jabr (The Shining Treatise on Algebra) of al-Samaw’al ibn Yahya al-Maghribi, a twelfth century mathematician. Al-Bāhir fi’l-Jabr is a manuscript written in Arabic and has never been translated except for a few excerpts in French. The purpose of this study was to explore the mathematical and pedagogical contribution of al-Samaw’al through an analysis of al-Samaw’al’s mathematical techniques and methods in al-Bāhir fi’l-Jabr. Moreover, the treatise provides a precise description of the “arithmetization of algebra”, and gives an accounting of the original ideas of another mathematician, al-Karaji, whose original documents have been lost. To develop a comprehensive picture of al-Samaw’al’s mathematical techniques and methods in al-Bāhir fi’l-Jabr (and his contribution to algebra in particular) this research has been based mainly on a careful analysis of al-Samaw’al’s manuscript in MSS Aya Sofia numbered 2718 (116ff), stored in the Suleymaniye library (Istanbul, Turkey). This study of al-Bāhir fi’l-Jabr focuses on an overview of how al-Samaw’al dealt with signed numbers, exponents and polynomial operations. Furthermore, this study describes the al-Samaw’al’s “method of the tables,” certain algorithms he employed, as well as his work on the binomial theorem, binomial coefficients, and the tabular arrangement known today as Pascal’s triangle. Most importantly, the study attempts to show the pedagogical approaches of al-Samaw’al.

Islamic Jurisprudence comprises of the laws that govern a Muslims daily life. The Prophet Muhammad explained and practically demonstrated these laws. The jurists studied the Quran and the Prophet's life and they adopted a refined methodology which they used to extract legal rulings and verdicts. This methodology is known as the Principles of Jurisprudence. The jurists expanded on this methodology with some differences among them on the usage and the application of some aspects as acceptable forms of evidence. Eventually, the Muslim world was left with four schools of jurisprudence that are present to this day. There are differences between these schools on some issues but these differences never caused conflict, instead it provided us with a wealth of knowledge. We need to study these schools and its principles together with the objectives and intent of the Shariah and utilize this to find solutions to all new issues that arise.
Religious Studies and Arabic
M. A. (Islamic Studies)

Text in English and Arabic
In pre-colonial Africa, the Southwestern Sahara which includes Mauritania, Mali and Senegal belonged to what was then referred to as the Sudan and extended from the Atlantic seaboard to the Red Sea. The advent of Islam and the Arabic language to West Africa in the 11th century heralded an intellectual marathon whose literary output still fascinates us today. At a time when Europe was emerging from the dark ages and Africa was for most Europeans a terra incognita, indigenous African scholars were composing treatises as diverse as mathematics, agriculture and the Islamic sciences. A twentieth century Mauritanian, Arabic monograph, Irshād al- Muqallidīn ʿinda ikhtilāf al-Mujtahidīn1, written circa 1910/1332, by a yet unknown Mauritanian jurist of the Mālikī School, Bāba bin al-Shaykh Sīdī al- Shinqīṭī al-Ntishā-ī (d.1920/1342), a member of the muchacclaimed Shinqīṭī fraternity of scholars, is a fine example of African literary accomplishment. This manuscript hereinafter referred to as the Irshād, is written within the legal framework of Islamic jurisprudence (usūl al-fiqh). A science that relies for the most part on the intellectual and interpretive competence of the independent jurist, or mujtahid, in the application of the methodologies employed in the extraction of legal norms from the primary sources of the sharīʿah. The subject matter of the Irshād deals with the question of juristic differences. Juristic differences invariably arise when a mujtahid exercises his academic freedom to clarify or resolve conundrums in the law and to postulate legal norms. Other independent jurists (mujtahidūn) may posit different legal norms because of the exercise of their individual interpretive skills. These differences, when they are deemed juristically irreconcilable, are called ikhtilāfāt (pl. of ikhtilāf). The author of the Irshād explores a corollary of the ikhtilāf narrative and posits the hypothesis that there ought not to be ikhtilāf in the sharīʿah. The proposed research will comprise an annotated translation of the monograph followed by a synopsis and commentary on its dominant themes.
Religious Studies and Arabic
D. Litt. et Phil. (Islamic Studies)