The Theology of Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī/al-Kaʿbī (d. 319/931)

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Tables

Introduction

Review of Scholarship

Biography

Works

Titles of Lost Works

Part 1: Source Criticism

1 The Four Testimonies

The Muʿtazilī Testimony

The Imāmī Baghdadi Muʿtazilī Testimony

The Māturīdī Testimony

al-Ashʿarī and the Ashʿarī Testimony

Assessment of Testimonies

The Attributes

Justice

Epistemology

The Doctrine of Nature

The Imāma

Summary of al-Kaʿbī’s Theological Doctrines

Appendix 1: Articles in the Reconstruction of al-Kaʿbī’s Doctrine of Justice

Appendix 2: Articles in the Reconstruction of al-Kaʿbī’s Epistemology

Appendix 3: Articles in the Reconstruction of al-Kaʿbī’s Cosmology

Part 2: Theology

2 The Attributes

al-Kaʿbī’s Precursors on the Attributes

al-Naẓẓām

Baghdadi Predecessors

al-Kaʿbī’s Doctrine of the Attributes

The Attributes of Essence and of Act

The Scripturalist Basis for Knowing the Attributes

The Attributes of Hearing, Seeing, and Volition

God’s Speech and God’s Relation to Place

The Case of the Basran Muʿtazilī and Māturīdī Testimonies: Attributes of Essence

The Case of the Basran Testimony versus ʿAbd al-Qāhir al-Baghdādī: Scripture and God’s Names

The Case of the Late Ashʿarī Testimony

3 Justice

An Overview of the Basran Ontology of Acts

Early Muʿtazilī Views on Divine Justice

al-Kaʿbī’s Doctrine of Justice

The Principles for Distinguishing Good from Evil Acts

God’s Capacity for Doing Evil

The Optimum

The Case of the Basran Polemical Testimony: al-Kaʿbī’s Argument for the Optimum (al-aṣlaḥ)

4 Epistemology

Overview of Basran Epistemology

Early Muʿtazilī Epistemology

al-Kaʿbī’s Epistemology

The Case of the Basran Polemical Testimony: al-Kaʿbī’s Definition of Knowledge

5 The Doctrine of Nature

Early Muʿtazilī Doctrines of Nature

al-Kaʿbī’s Doctrine of Nature

6 The Imāma

The Baghdadi Muʿtazilīs on the Imāma Prior to al-Kaʿbī

al-Kaʿbī’s Doctrine of the Imāma

Epilogue

Bibliography

Primary Sources

Secondary Literature

Index of Names

General Index