Islamic Humanism
This book is an attempt to explain how, in the face of increasing religious authoritarianism in medieval Islamic civilization, some Muslim thinkers continued to pursue essentially humanistic, rational, and scientific discourses in the quest for knowledge, meaning, and values. Drawing on a wide range of Islamic writings, from love poetry to history to philosophical theology, Goodman shows that medieval Islam was open to individualism, occasional secularism, skepticism, even liberalism
1 online resource (463 pages)
9780198031024, 0198031025
1058346992
Cover Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Preface
Contents
Abbreviations and Short Titles
Introduction
1. The Sacred and the Secular
Focus and Distraction
Poetry and Music
Dress and Display
Dunyā and Dīn-in Wine, War, and Love
Play, the Hunt, and the Freedom of the Dandy
2. Humanism and Islamic Ethics
Islamic Ethics in Theory and Practice
Miskawayh's Courtly Humanism
Ghazālī 's Appropriation
3. Being and Knowing
Being and Becoming
Knowledge as a Value
4. The Rise of Universal Historiography. The Birth of Arabic Historiography
The Roots of Annalistic
Balādhurī's Narrative Strategy
Greek and Biblical Models
Universal History
Tabarī's Synthesis
Saadiah's Historical Orientation
Mas'ūdī
The Triumph of Synthetic History
Miskawayh's Historiography
Local Chronicles and Biographical Dictionaries
Rashīd al-Dīn 's Universal History
Ibn Khaldūn
Notes
Bibliography
Index