Preface
The present study was written as part of the German-British research project “Major issues and controversies of Arabic logic and philosophy of language” (Ruhr-University Bochum and Cambridge University, funded by the German Research Foundation and the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2011–2015) and was accepted as a dissertation by the Faculty of Philology at Ruhr-University Bochum in spring of 2016 under the title “Die Klassifikation sprachlicher Bezeichnung im islamischen Rechtsdenken: Faḫr ad-dīn ar-Rāzīs Synthese zwischen Logik, Grammatik und Jurisprudenz in seinem Werk al-Maḥṣūl fī ʿilm uṣūl al-fiqh.”
It has benefited in every respect from the intellectual, critical acuity of my doctoral supervisor Prof. Dr. Cornelia Schöck, to whom I owe a great debt of gratitude, and it would not have been conceivable without her initiative and without her inlcusion of it into the research project for which she was responsible.
I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Asad Q. Ahmed (University of California, Berkeley), who supervised this thesis as second reader, for all his valuable comments and remarks during my doctoral studies.
My sincere thanks go also to Prof. Dr. Gerhard Endreß, who always lent me a sympathetic ear during my time in Bochum and read my work with a critical eye.
Annual joint workshops have given me the opportunity to present my work from different perspectives to a knowledgeable audience. I would therefore like to thank all those who have participated in these workshops and supported my work: In addition to my two supervisors, these include in particular our project co-leader Dr. Tony Street as well as (in alphabetical order) Dr. Rachel Friedman, Prof. Dr. Dimitri Gutas, Dr. Alexander Kalbarczyk, Dr. Joep Lameer, Prof. Dr. James Montgomery, Dr. Reza Pourjavady, Prof. Dr. Khaled el-Rouayheb, Prof. Dr. Riccardo Strobino, and Prof. Dr. Paul Thom. My communications with Prof. Dr. Peter Adamson, Prof. Dr. Dag Hasse, Dr. Andreas Lammer, and the other participants of the Würzburg and Munich reading groups as well as with Prof. Dr. Robert Gleave and Dr. Ayman Shihadeh have been and continue to be particularly fruitful for my reflections. My special thanks go to the anonymous reviewer, whose thorough corrections were extremely helpful. I would also like to thank the editors of the Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science series as well as Teddi Dolls and Wilma de Weert from the Brill publishing house for their wonderful cooperation.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank my husband, Alexander Kalbarczyk, for our constant discussions about my dissertation project, for thinking and rethinking through ideas with me, and for his patient, loving support. My grandfather Lothar Wothe and my grandparents Bernd and Hella Schmid I thank for their unfailing love and support. To my parents-in-law Johanna and Hendrik Kalbarczyk, too, without whose care and support many things would not have been possible, I give my special thanks. My children Elias and Sophia, whose daily life from the very beginning has been shaped by my involvement with Islamic intellectual history, have taught and continue each day anew to teach me to wonder and ask questions. Their shining eyes have shed light on many things.
Sankt Augustin, April 2018
Nora Kalbarczyk
Addendum to the English Edition
The English translation of my German book from 2018 was carefully prepared by Andrew Wigman. I am very grateful to him for this wonderful and enriching collaboration. I would also like to thank Paulina Bastian from Brill, who always supported us with advice and assistance.
Sankt Augustin, Oktober 2025
Nora Kalbarczyk