This chapter analyzes traditional archetypes of divan literature—‘āşık (lover), ma‘şūk (beloved), and rakīb (opponent)—to show the presence of a dialectical discourse in classical Ottoman divan love poems. In both style and content divan poems display a comprehensive understanding of the postclassical Islamic philosophical conception of dialectic and argumentation theory, known as ādāb al-baḥth wa al-munāẓara. The focus on Ottoman love poetry and argumentation theory in this paper aims to demonstrate how the love poetry that developed in Ottoman culture is more (...) dialectical in form and content than Ottoman literary studies have recognized. (shrink)

Mohammad Arkoun has been credited with the much needed attention to the Qur’ānic hermeneutics. A Textual analysis of his writings shows that his major concern is the methodology of interpretation and that he studied the Qur’ān for the sake of methodology. He questions the authenticity of the Qur’ān as well as its truth claim. His presentation reads more like mathematics than a textual analysis. Consequently, his methodological discussion has been largely neglected.