Publisher's Synopsis
While the previous collection of articles by the late Georges Vajda prublished by Variorum, La transmission du savoir en Islam, VIIe-XVIIIe siÚcles, was mainly devoted to the more technical aspects of traditional Islamic learning, the present one is concerned with the realm of ideas, with the history of religious and philosophical doctrines in the medieval Islamic world. The first section looks at theological problems discussed by some of the major schools of Muslim religious thought - Sunnite, Mu'tazilite, Twelver and Isma'ili Shi'ite; the second turns to the philosphers, both Islamic and Jewish, among whom stand out the names of al-Farabi, Avicenna and Averroes. The final articles are Vajda's classic study of heterodoxy in the early Abbasid period, and a detailed account of Muslim views of dualist doctrines.
