How are we to conceive of the genealogy of the state without reducing tribal societies to the status of ancestors of state societies? It is the genealogy of political power that is at stake in this question. In Ibn Khaldûn's work, power is an integral part of an ontology that anchors the political in the biological. When Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari come up against the radical separation between state societies and stateless societies, which they perceive in Pierre Clastres’ work, (...) they borrow the concept of group feeling from Ibn Khaldûn, which allows them to posit the relationship between states and what is external to them. This article identifies an anthropology of power in Ibn Khaldûn in order to better understand his role in Mille Plateaux by Deleuze and Guattari. (shrink)

This article examines the role of scepticism in the Islamic philosophical tradition. It begins with a treatment of the origins and purpose of these discussions in classical kalām (c. 800–1100 CE). Then it moves on to the more mature discussions treating five forms of scepticism in the post‐classical period (c.1200–1800 CE), with the aim of demonstrating how they construed scepticism, the arguments for and against it, and what purposes scepticism played in their system. Three of these types of scepticism are (...) unrestricted, meaning that their denial of knowledge is universal. The other two types are restricted to a denial of inferential knowledge, either entirely, or in certain subjects such as metaphysics and natural philosophy. The discussion will focus on two of the most widely studied works of kalām: Saʿd al‐Din al‐Taftāzānī's Sharḥ al‐ʿAqāʾid al‐Nasafiyya and Jalāl al‐Dīn al‐Dawānī's Sharḥ al‐ʿAqāʾid al‐ʿAḍudiyya, including some of their super‐commentaries. (shrink)

In the process of conversion, one of the greatest challenges faced by Arab Muslims who choose to follow a Christian faith is determining how to relate to their birth communities, especially their immediate families. They continue to identify with their family and desire to function within its communal system and expectations, but also desire to be true to their new faith. For most converts in the Middle East, ceasing to adhere to the Islamic creed per se is not an act (...) of apostasy, but declaring that one has left Islam and chosen another faith is, and is seen as an act of rebellion by the community. The process of self-disclosure, or ‘coming out’, is complex, and many converts consider their decision about how to do this to be very important. There are various approaches converts may take, and various ways their families may respond, but one implicitly shared understanding between many converts and their families may be labelled ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’, whereby converts speak openly about their changed beliefs without explicitly declaring they have converted, and their families respond in kind, deliberately not asking if they have converted, in order to maintain a strong relationship with their loved ones. (shrink)

Marxist notions of the origins of capitalism are still largely structured by the famous debate on the transition from feudalism to capitalism. This essay suggests that that tradition of historiography locates capitalism too late and sees it in essentially national terms. It argues that capitalism began, on a European scale, in the important transformations that followed the great revival of the eleventh century and the role played by mercantile élites in innovating new forms of business organisation. However, with this starting (...) point, it becomes important to bring Islam into the picture in a central way, since the Mediterranean was the common heritage of many cultural and religious groups. Islam shaped the tradition of early capitalism both by preserving monetary economy and through its own precocious development of the partnership form. The essay periodises this early capitalism into a 'Mediterranean' and an 'Atlantic' phase, and concludes by looking briefly at the ways in which merchants dominate labour. (shrink)

With the increasing interest in Islam and evolution, some Islamic thinkers have vehemently rejected evolution, while others have eagerly embraced it. However, those seeking to embrace evolution sometimes err in their interpretation of historical writings. Indeed, there are texts written by famous historical scholars of Islam who seem to suggest that humans have evolved from lower forms of species. These include Ibn Khaldūn, Jalāl ad‐Dīn Rūmī, al‐Jāhiz, and The Brethren of Purity (Ikhwān al Safā). Although this may be true, such (...) readings are a mistaken interpretation of the aforementioned authors who are actually referring to some form of the scalae naturae (the Great Chain of Being). This reference to the Great Chain of Being is unknown to some contemporary readers who mistakenly believe these writers to be discussing an evolutionary or a proto‐evolutionary theory. This article demonstrates how and why these historical records do not actually represent any notion of evolution as it is currently understood, in the hope of avoiding any further erroneous claims that seem to be proliferating among modern thinkers. (shrink)

Questions and questioning represent one of the most important communicative and illustrative mediums of the Qur’an. Qur’ān exegetes devoted signifi cant efforts to the study of styles of questioning across various disciplines of the Qur’ān sciences, and as such, have addressed the topic of questions from the perspectives of language, theology, jurisprudence, dialectics, philosophy and ethics. Little interest, however, is shown to the relationship between questions and thinking. This textual analysis of selected Qur’ānic questions examine Qur’anic questions, their forms, scope, (...) functions and effects with respect to development of human thought. This study shows that questions in the Qur’ān serve a broad range of objectives. The style of questioning inherent the Qur’ān presents an intuitive and familiar method that may be included in current Muslim education and learning to revive critical thinking and creativity known to early generation. (shrink)

Many current researches have sought to explore the thought and contributions of Ibn Khaldūn to the various disciplines of human knowledge including philosophy of history, historiography, politics, economics, and education. Little interest, however, is given to his contributions to the theory of critical thinking. This research investigates Ibn Khaldūn’s perspective on critical thinking and critique of intellectual disciplines while exploring its origin and dimensions. The research shows that Ibn Khaldūn’s critical thinking is essentially entrenched in the fundamental vision and origins (...) of Islam, and reflective of the broad Islamic scholarship and the practices of Muslim scholars across the different religious and rational disciplines. What characterises Ibn Khaldūn’s contribution to the field of critical thinking is his ability to apply it across various fields of scholarship yet with a conscious attention to society’s dynamics, particularly the practical dimensions and implications of his theory of human society. (shrink)