ISLA 380 Islamic Philosophy and Theology Fall 2019 Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8:35AM-9:55AM, in Birks 111 Instructor: Prof. Robert Wisnovsky Institute of Islamic Studies, Morrice Hall, Room 026 Tel: 514-398-6077/e-mail: [email protected] Office hours: By appointment

ISLA 380 is an introduction to the most important philosophers and theologians in Islamic intellectual history, with a focus on the concepts they articulated and the movements they engendered. Although many of the philosophical and theological problems we will examine first arose over a thousand years ago, debates over how to resolve them still resonate throughout the Islamic world. The classes will alternate between those devoted to lecturing and answering questions, and those devoted to student- led debates over particular philosophical and theological questions. The readings are a mix of primary and secondary sources; all are in English.

Requirements

Students will be required to: a) Lead one side of one debate. In each debate, two student debaters will each give a twenty-minute presentation of their opposing positions, and then respond to questions and criticisms from the rest of the class. The two debaters should prepare a handout (two pages maximum) in which they outline their position and arguments. NB: There are only eleven debates. If more than 22 students end up enrolling in the class, the remaining students will each choose a debate and submit a 2500-word (+/- 50 words maximum) essay in which they lay out the arguments in favor of one side of that debate, and against the other side. This essay will be due at the beginning of the class in which that debate is held. b) Complete the take-home midterm exam. For the take-home midterm exam, students will choose one of three essay questions to answer. The essay questions will relate to topics covered up to and including the October 10 class. The exam is open book; however, in the essay, which must be 2500 words long (+/- 50 words maximum), students should only cite the course readings (required as well as recommended), lectures and debates. The midterm exam will be posted on the ISLA 380 MyCourses webpage at 5:00PM on Thursday, October 10. It will be due at 5:00PM on Tuesday, October 15. c) Complete the take-home final exam. For the take-home final exam, students will choose two of six essay questions to answer. The essay questions will relate to topics covered in the readings, lectures and debates, from the entire semester. The exam is open book; however, in the two essays, each of which must be 2500 words long (+/- 50 words maximum), students should only cite the course readings (required as well as recommended), lectures and debates. The final exam will be posted on the ISLA 380 MyCourses webpage at 5:00PM on Thursday, November 28. It will be due at 5:00PM on the final day of exam period: Friday, December 20. d) Come to class i) having read the required readings, and ii) prepared to participate in the discussions, especially those during the debates. The required readings average about 100 pages per week.

1 Final course grades will be determined as follows: a) debate: 22.5% b) take-home midterm exam: 22.5% c) take-home final exam: 45% d) class participation: 10%

Textbooks

The following textbook is available for purchase at Paragraphe Bookstore.

P. Adamson and R. Taylor, eds, The Cambridge Companion to Arabic Philosophy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)

PDFs of all readings other than Adamson and Taylor are available for download from the MyCourses webpage.

McGill Policies

McGill University values academic integrity. Therefore, all students must understand the meaning and consequences of cheating, plagiarism and other academic offences under the Code of Student Conduct and Disciplinary Procedures” (see www.mcgill.ca/students/srr/honest/ for more information).

In accord with McGill University’s Charter of Students’ Rights, students in this course have the right to submit in English or in French any written work that is to be graded.

Class Schedule

Tuesday Sep 3: Logistics

Thursday Sep 5 (Lecture): The study of Islamic philosophy and theology; early sectarianism Required for all students (62 pages): W. M. Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology: An Extended Survey (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1985), 1-63

Tuesday Sep 10 (Lecture): Early sectarianism (cont’d); Muʿtazilism Required for all students (61 pages): M. A. S. Abdel Haleem, “Qur’an and ḥadith,” in T. Winter, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 19-31 K. Blankinship, “The early creed,” in T. Winter, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Islamic Theology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 33-54

2 al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, Letter on Free Will and Predestination, in A. Rippin and J.C. Knappert, eds and trans, Textual Sources for the Study of Islam (Totowa, N.J.: Barnes & Noble Books, 1987), 115-121 R. El-Omari, “The Mu‘tazilite movement: The origins of the Mu‘tazila,” in S. Schmidtke, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 131-140 D. Bennett, “The Mu‘tazilite movement: The early Mu‘tazilites,” in S. Schmidtke, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 143-156

Thursday Sep 12 (Debate): “If God creates our actions, isn’t He unjust to punish us for them?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (138 pages): H. A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976), 601- 719 A. Shihadeh, “Theories of ethical value in kalām: A new interpretation,” in S. Schmidtke, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 384-404

Tuesday Sep 17 (Lecture): The Miḥna; al-Ashʿarī Required for all students (75 pages): W. M. Watt, Islamic Philosophy and Theology: An Extended Survey (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1985), 64-68 and 75-84 al-Ashʿarī [d. ca. 936], A Vindication of the Science of Kalam; “al-Ashʿarī’s conversion,” and “Two creeds of al-Ashʿarī,” in R. J. McCarthy, trans., The Theology of al-Ashʿarī (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1953), 119-134, 150-153, 235-254 al-Ṭabarī [d. 923], History of Prophets and Kings, in C.E. Bosworth, trans., al-Ṭabarī: History of Prophets and Kings; vol. 32: “The Reunification of the ʿAbbasid Caliphate” (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 198-223

Thursday Sep 19 (Debate): “Is the Qurʾān created or uncreated?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (138 pages): H. A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976), 235- 303 al-Ashʿarī [d. ca. 936], Highlights of the Polemic against Deviators and Innovators, in R. J. McCarthy, trans., The Theology of al-Ashʿarī (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1953), 20-32 and 53-111

Tuesday Sep 24: (Lecture): Greek into Arabic; al-Kindī; logic and epistemology Required for all students (104 pages): P. Adamson, “Al-Kindī and the reception of Greek philosophy,” in Adamson and Taylor, 32-51 Excerpts on translation, biography and the sciences, in F. Rosenthal, ed. and trans., The Classical Heritage in Islam (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1975), 15-82 Ibn Khaldūn [d. 1406], Prolegomenon, in F. Rosenthal, trans., Ibn Khaldūn: An Introduction to History, The Muqaddimah (New York: The Bollingen Foundation, 1964), 371-375, 382-386, 388-390 al-Kindī, On Divine Unity and the Finitude of the World’s Body, in J. McGinnis and D. C. Reisman, eds and trans, Classical Arabic Philosophy: An Anthology of Sources (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2007), 18-22 al-Kindī, On First Philosophy, in P. Adamson and P. E. Pormann, eds and trans, The Philosophical Works of al-Kindī (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015), 10-14

Thursday Sep 26 (Debate): “Do we need a divine text in order to know things with certainty, or can we use logic instead?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (109 pages):

3 al-Kindī [d. 865], Sketch of Aristotle’s Organon, in N. Rescher, trans., “Al-Kindi’s sketch of Aristotle’s Organon,” The New Scholasticism 37 (1963), 44-58 The Discussion between Abū Bishr Mattā and Abū Saʿīd al-Sīrāfī on the Merits of Logic and Grammar, in D. Margoliouth, ed. and trans., “The discussion between Abū Bishr Mattā and Abū Saʿīd al-Sirāfī on the merits of logic and grammar,” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland New Series 37 (1905), 79-91, 110-129 Ibn Taymiyya [d. 1328], Against the Logicians, in W. Hallaq, trans., Ibn Taymiyya: Against the Logicians (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993), 3-30 T. Street, “Logic,” in Adamson and Taylor, 247-265 K. El-Rouayheb, “Theology and Logic,” in S. Schmidtke, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016), 408-427

Tuesday Oct 1 (Lecture): al-Fārābī; ethics and political philosophy Required for all students (80 pages): D. C. Reisman, “Al-Fārābī and the philosophical curriculum,” in Adamson and Taylor, 52-71 al-Fārābī [d. 950], The Attainment of Happiness, in M. Mahdi, trans., Alfarabi’s Philosophy of Plato and Aristotle (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1969), 13-50 Ibn Miskawayh [d. 1030], The Refinement of Character, in C. Zurayk, trans., The Refinement of Character: A Translation of Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Miskawayh's Tahdhīb al-Akhlāq (Beirut: American University of Beirut, 1968), 11-15, 35-38 and 69-85

Thursday Oct 3: (Debate): “Do prophets or philosophers make better lawgivers?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (83 pages): Ch. Butterworth, “Ethical and political philosophy,” in Adamson and Taylor, 266-286 al-Ashʿarī [d. ca. 936], Highlights of the Polemic against Deviators and Innovators, in R. J. McCarthy, trans., The Theology of al-Ashʿarī (Beirut: Imprimerie Catholique, 1953), 112-116 M. S. Mahdi, “Political philosophy and religion,” in C. Butterworth, ed., Al-Farabi and the Foundation of Islamic Political Philosophy (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2001), 97-124 al-Fārābī [d. 950], The Enumeration of the Sciences, in R. Lerner and M. Mahdi, eds and trans, Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook (New York: The Free Press, 1963), 22-30 Avicenna [d. 1037], On the Divisions of the Rational Sciences, in R. Lerner and M. Mahdi, eds and trans, Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook (New York: The Free Press, 1963), 95-97 Avicenna [d. 1037], Healing: Metaphysics X, in R. Lerner and M. Mahdi, eds and trans, Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook (New York: The Free Press, 1963), 98-111 Avicenna [d. 1037], On the Proof of Prophecies, in R. Lerner and M. Mahdi, eds and trans, Medieval Political Philosophy: A Sourcebook (New York: The Free Press, 1963), 112-121

Tuesday Oct 8: (Lecture): Avicenna (Ibn Sīnā); metaphysics and psychology Required for all students (77 pages): R. Wisnovsky, “Avicenna and the Avicennian tradition,” in Adamson and Taylor, 92-136 Avicenna [d. 1037], The Autobiography, in D. Gutas, Avicenna and the Aristotelian Tradition (New York: E.J. Brill, 1988), 22-30 Avicenna [d. 1037], On Necessary and Possible Existence, in G. Hourani, “Ibn Sina on necessary and possible existence,” Philosophical Forum 6 (1974), 74-86 al-Ṭūsī [d. 1274], Treatise on the Proof of a Necessary Being, in P. Morewedge, trans., The Metaphysics of Ṭūsī (New York: The Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science, 1992), 1-14

4 Thursday Oct 10: (Debate): “After we die, do our souls alone survive, or will our bodies be resurrected as well?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (56 pages): D. Black, “Psychology: Soul and intellect,” in Adamson and Taylor, 308-326 Avicenna [d. 1037], Psychology, in F. Rahman, trans., Avicenna’s Psychology: An English Translation of Kitāb al-najāt, Book II, Chapter VI, with Historico-Philosophical Notes and textual Improvements on the Cairo Edition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1952), 56-64 al-Ghazālī [d. 1111]/Averroes [d. 1198], Incoherence, in S. van den Bergh, trans., Averroes’ Tahafut al- tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) (London: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1978), 333-363

Tuesday Oct 15: NO CLASS: take-home Midterm due at 5:00PM

Thursday Oct 17 (Lecture): Ghazālī; reactions to falsafa Required for all students (82 pages): M. Marmura, “al-Ghazālī,” in Adamson and Taylor, 137-154 al-Ghazālī [d. 1111], Deliverance from Error, in W. M. Watt, trans., The Faith and Practice of al-Ghazālī (Chicago: Kazi Publications, 1982), 19-85

Tuesday Oct 22 (Lecture): Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and Maghribi philosophy; Arabic into Latin Required for all students (95 pages): J. Puig Montada, “Philosophy in Andalusia: Ibn Bājja and Ibn Ṭufayl,” in Adamson and Taylor, 155- 179 C. Burnett, “Arabic into Latin: The reception of Arabic philosophy into Western Europe,” in Adamson and Taylor, 370-404 Averroes [d. 1198], Harmony, in G. F. Hourani, trans., Averroes on the Harmony of Religion and Philosophy (London: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1961), 44-81

Thursday Oct 24 (Debate): “Are God’s hands tied by the laws of nature, or can He override nature in order to create miracles?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (130 pages): F. Griffel, Al-Ghazālī’s Philosophical Theology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 147-173 H. A. Wolfson, The Philosophy of the Kalam (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1976), 518- 600 al-Ghazālī [d. 1111]/Averroes [d. 1198], Incoherence, in S. van den Bergh, trans., Averroes’ Tahafut al- tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) (London: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1978), 311-333

Tuesday Oct 29 (Lecture): Post-classical “verifiers” (muḥaqqiqūn) Required for all students (108 pages): R. Wisnovsky, “Avicenna’s Islamic reception,” in P. Adamson, ed., Interpreting Avicenna: Critical Essays (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), 190-213 Francis Robinson, “Ottomans-Safavids-Mughals: Shared knowledge and connective systems,” Journal of Islamic Studies 8:2 (1997), 151-184 H. Ziai, “Recent trends in Arabic and Persian philosophy,” in Adamson and Taylor, 405-425 Shah Walī Allāh of Delhi [d. 1762], The Conclusive Argument from God, in M.K. Hermansen, The Conclusive Argument from God: Shāh Walī Allāh of Delhi’s Ḥujjat Allāh al-Bāligha (New York, E.J. Brill, 1996), 33-36, 173-178, 190-202

5 Thursday Oct 31 (Debate): “Is God so sublime that He only knows things in a general way, or can He know particular things just as we do?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (64 pages): M. Marmura, “Some aspects of Avicenna’s theory of God’s knowledge of particulars,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 82/3 (1962), 299-312 P. Adamson, “On knowledge of particulars,” Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society (New Series), 105 (2005), 257-278 al-Ghazālī [d. 1111]/Averroes [d. 1198], Incoherence, in S. van den Bergh, trans., Averroes’ Tahafut al- tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) (London: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1978), 255-285

Tuesday Nov 5: (Lecture): Illuminationism; the Akbarian turn Required for all students (92 pages): J. Walbridge, “Suhrawardī and Illuminationism,” in Adamson and Taylor, 201-223 S. H. Rizvi, “Mysticism and philosophy: Ibn ʿArabī and Mullā Ṣadrā,” in Adamson and Taylor, 224- 246 W. Chittick, “Ibn ʿArabī and his school,” in Islamic Spirituality: Manifestations, ed. Seyyed Hossein Nasr (New York: Crossroad, 1997) 49-74 al-Shahrazūrī [d. after 1288], “Introduction” to his Commentary on Suhrawardī’s [d. 1191] Philosophy of Illumination, in J. Walbridge and H. Ziai, eds and trans, Suhrawardī: The Philosophy of Illumination (Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Press, 1999), xxxviii-xliii Mullā Ṣadrā [d. 1641], Book of Prehensions, in P. Morewedge, ed. and trans., The Metaphysics of Mulla Sadrā (New York: The Society for the Study of Islamic Philosophy and Science, 1992), 55-83

Thursday Nov 7 (Debate): “Was the world created out of nothing or is it eternal, just as God is?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students: (71 pages) al-Ghazālī [d. 1111]/Averroes [d. 1198], Incoherence, in S. van den Bergh, trans., Averroes’ Tahafut al- tahafut (The Incoherence of the Incoherence) (London: E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, 1978), 1-58, 156- 170

Tuesday Nov 12 (Lecture): Revival, reform and early modernism Required for all students (108 pages): F. Rahman, “Revival and reform in Islam,” in P. M. Holt, A. K. S. Lambton and B. Lewis, eds, The Cambridge History of Islam (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), vol. 2, 632-656 A. Dallal, “The origins and objectives of Islamic revivalist thought, 1750-1850,” Journal of the American Oriental Society, 113/3 (1993), 341-359 Muḥammad ʿAbduh [d. 1905], Essay on Divine Unity, in I. Musaʿad and K. Cragg, trans, The Theology of Unity by Muhammad ʿAbduh, (London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1966), 27-56, 123-160

Thursday Nov 14 (Debate): “Does progress presuppose Westernization?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (158 pages): A. Hourani, Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age, 1798-1939 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), 25-160 R.C. Martin and M.R. Woodward, Defenders of Reason in Islam: Muʿtazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1997), 128-138 al-Afghānī [d. 1897], The Benefits of Philosophy, in N. Keddie and H. Algar, trans, An Islamic Response to Imperialism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 109-122

6 Iqbal [d. 1938], Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam, in M. S. Sheikh, ed., The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam by Allama Muhammad Iqbal (Lahore, Pakistan: Institute of Islamic Culture, 1986), 23-49

Tuesday Nov 19 (Lecture): Late modernism; Neo-Muʿtazilism Required for all students (123 pages): R.C. Martin and M.R. Woodward, Defenders of Reason in Islam: Muʿtazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1997), 158-179 H. Nasution, The Muʿtazila and Rational Philosophy, in R.C. Martin and M.R. Woodward, Defenders of Reason in Islam: Muʿtazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1997), 180-196 R.C. Martin and M.R. Woodward, Defenders of Reason in Islam: Muʿtazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1997), 199-203 F. Rahman, Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 1-83

Thursday Nov 21 (Debate): “How useful is the Islamic philosophical and theological tradition to modern Muslims?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (129 pages): F. Rahman, Islam and Modernity: Transformation of an Intellectual Tradition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1984), 84-162 S. Jackson, “Mu‘tazilism and black theodicy” and “Ash‘arism and black theodicy,” in Islam and the Problem of Black Suffering (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), 47-98

Tuesday Nov 26 (Lecture): Postmodernism and postcoloniality; Muslim feminist theology Required for all students (111 pages): R.C. Martin and M.R. Woodward, Defenders of Reason in Islam: Muʿtazilism from Medieval School to Modern Symbol (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 1997), 204-219 A. Wadud, Qur’an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), ix-xxvi and 1-43 N. Adújar, “Feminist readings of the Qur’an: Social, political, and religious implications,” in E. Aslan, M. Hermansen, and E. Medeni, eds, Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians, (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2014), 59-78. A. Hidayatullah, “Muslim feminist theology in the United States,” in E. Aslan, M. Hermansen, and E. Medeni, eds, Muslima Theology: The Voices of Muslim Women Theologians, (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2014), 81-99

Thursday Nov 28 (Debate): “How ‘Islamic’ are Islamic philosophy and theology?” Required for debaters/Recommended for all other students (105 pages): M. Arkoun, Islam, Europe, the West: Meanings-at-stake and the Will-to-Power, in J. Cooper et al., eds, Islam and Modernity: Muslim Intellectuals Respond (London: I.B.Tauris, 2000), 172-189 N. Abu Zaid, Divine Attributes in the Qur’an: Some Poetic Aspects, in J. Cooper et al., eds, Islam and Modernity: Muslim Intellectuals Respond (London: I. B.Tauris, 2000), 190-211 A. Soroush, The Evolution and Devolution of Religious Knowledge, in C. Kurzman, ed., Liberal Islam: A Sourcebook (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 244-251 A. Soroush, The Three Cultures, in M. Sadri and A. Sadri, eds and trans, Reason, Freedom, and Democracy in Islam: Essential Writings of Abdolkarim Soroush (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 156- 170

7 R. Wisnovsky, “The nature and scope of Arabic philosophical commentary in post-classical (ca. 1100-1900 AD) Islamic intellectual history: Some preliminary observations,” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies (University of London) 47 (2004) (Special Issue 83/2: P. Adamson, H. Baltussen and M.W.F. Stone, eds, Philosophy, Science and Exegesis in Greek, Arabic and Latin Commentaries), 149-191 (but read only 149-151) S. Ahmed, What is Islam? The Importance of Being Islamic (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016), 1-19, 113-129

8