The volume contains critical editions of the extant parts of two hitherto unknown theological works by the BÅ«yid vizier al-á¹¢Äḥib b. Ê¿AbbÄd (d. 385/925), who is well known to have vigorously promoted the teaching of MuÊ¿tazilÄ« theology throughout BÅ«yid territories and beyond. The manuscripts on which the edition is based come from Cairo Geniza store rooms. They consist of two manuscripts for each of the two textsâtestimony to the impact of al-á¹¢Äḥibâs education policy on the contemporaneous Jewish community in Cairo. The longer treatise of al-á¹¢Äḥib of ca. 350/960, possibly his KitÄb Nahj al-sabÄ«l fÄ« uṣūl al-dÄ«n, appears to be the earliest MuÊ¿tazilÄ« work preserved among the Jewish community. The second, briefer treatise also contains a commentary by Ê¿Abd al-JabbÄr al-HamadÄnÄ« (d. 415/1025).
Wilferd Madelung is Laudian Professor of Arabic, University of Oxford (emeritus).
Sabine Schmidtke is Professor of Islamic Intellectual History, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ.
"This is certainly a book of interest for the students of Mutazilite theology as well as for those interested in the cultural context and content of the era of the Buyid Dynasty." - Stavros Nikolaidis, in: Journal of Oriental and African Studies 27 (2018)
All interested in Jewish and Muslim intellectual history, specifically rational theology (kalÄmM), during the Middle Ages.