Preface. Abbreviations. 1. Metaphysical Foundations of Arabic Thought, 1. Hierarchy, Substance and Combination. The Great Chain of Being. The Constitution of Composite Beings. Elemental and Somatic Composites. Composition, Justice and the Social Order 2. Metaphysical Foundations, 2. Relations of Creation, Sympathy and Analogy. Humanity and Spirituality. God and Man. Occult Sympathies. Divine Will and Human Acts 3. A Special Relation: Signification. Knowledge and its Object. Knowledge and the Arabic Language. Interpretation and Symbolism 4. The Constitution of Islamic and Foreign Sciences. The Structure of Scientific Formations. Authority and the Classification of Sciences. The Content and Form of Islamic and Foreign Sciences 5. The Institution and Continuity of Scientific Formations. Criteria of Illicit Knowledge. The Formation of Dogmatic and Legal Schools. The Institutionalisation of Learning. Pedagogic Authority and the Formation of Traditions 6. Concluding Notes. Scientific Knowledge and the Social Order. The Social and Utopian Being of the ‘Ulama’. Official Knowledge and Social Catholicity. Exemplarism, Authority and the Best of All Possible Worlds. Arabic Sources. Index
Biography
Aziz Al-Azmeh
