1st Edition
Early Islamic Theology: The Mu`tazilites and al-Ash`ari Texts and Studies on the Development and History of Kalam, Vol. II
This is the second of three volumes reprinting the collected papers on Islamic subjects by Richard M. Frank, Professor Emeritus at the Catholic University of America. It brings together Franks's articles on early kalam, the Mu`tazilites, and the development of the thought of al-Ash`ari. The studies in this collection are of particular importance for the study of kalam, in that they represent an original attempt to make philosophical sense and understand the theoretical underpinnings of the foundational theological tradition in early Islam, the Mu`tazilite school of Basra. They focus, among others, on Abu l-Hudhayl al-`Allaf, al-Jubba`i, and al-Ash`ari, and include a critical edition and translation of the latter's al-Hathth `ala l-bahth.
Biography
Richard M. Frank is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Semitic and Egyptian Languages and Literatures, at the Catholic University of America, USA. Dimitri Gutas is Professor of Arabic and Graeco-Arabic at Yale University, USA.
’Like the first volume, this new collection makes available a number of very valuable articles, some of which were originally published in hard-to-find proceedings or journals. Professor Gutas has done a fine job of selecting the nine articles; one cannot imagine a better-fitting group of articles for a Variorum book. Gutas is also to be commended for overseeing the production of the three exhaustive indexes (one for names and subjects, one for Arabic terms, and one for Greek and Syriac terms), which make the articles searchable and enhance their usability for scholars of Islamic studies.’ Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies
