A01=Hussein Ali Abdulsater
Arabic literature
Author_Hussein Ali Abdulsater
Category=QDHK
Category=QRPP
Category=QRVG
classical Islam
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eq_nobargain
forthcoming
Jahiz
Mu?tazilism
rationalism
theology
Product details
- ISBN 9781399521987
- Dimensions: 156 x 234mm
- Publication Date: 30 Nov 2026
- Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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While it may seem paradoxical to combine trust in rational religion with distrust of human reason, this is exactly what a group of understudied Muslim theologians proposed. Known as the Epistemists, they pushed for an inclusive epistemology that broadened the scope of knowledge. They argued that humans can acquire rational knowledge without discursive arguments, through an unconscious process of social exposure. In this, the Epistemists presented a radical alternative to other Islamic conceptions of rationalism, with immense promise for modern contexts.
This book reconstructs a worldview prominent among the Epistemists, and explores how it correlates with their rise and fall as a theological trend. It examines the intellectual project of their premier advocate, al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 868-9), offering a systematic reading of his oeuvre as an Epistemist, and situates it in the formative ʿAbbasid moment of Islamic history.
Hussein Ali Abdulsater is Associate Professor of Arabic Culture and Islamic Studies in the Department of Classics at the University of Notre Dame. His research is concerned with uncovering the historical roots and social contexts of major theological themes in Islam. It also traces the ethical and philosophical aspects of Islamic religious thought as expressed in humanistic disciplines such as historiography and literature.
His publications include:
· “A Jāḥiẓian Contribution to Reason in Islam? Revisiting al-Muḥāsibī’s Māʾiyyat al-ʿaql,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 142:1 (2022), 1-32.
· Shiʿi Doctrine, Muʿtazili Theology: al-Sharīf al-Murtaḍā and Imami Discourse (Edinburgh University Press, 2017).
· “Reason, Grace and the Freedom of Conscience: The Period of Investigation in Classical Islamic Theology,” Studia Islamica, 110:2 (2015), 233-262.
