The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology

Within the field of Islamic Studies, scientific research of Muslim theology is a comparatively young discipline. Much progress has been achieved over the past decades with respect both to discoveries of new materials and to scholarly approaches to the field. The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology provides a comprehensive and authoritative survey of the current state of the field. It provides a variegated picture of the state of the art and at the same time suggests new directions for future research.

Part One covers the various strands of Islamic theology during the formative and early middle periods, rational as well as scripturalist. To demonstrate the continuous interaction among the various theological strands and its repercussions (during the formative and early middle period and beyond), Part Two offers a number of case studies. These focus on specific theological issues that have developed through the dilemmatic and often polemical interactions between the different theological schools and thinkers. Part Three covers Islamic theology during the later middle and early modern periods. One of the characteristics of this period is the growing amalgamation of theology with philosophy (Peripatetic and Illuminationist) and mysticism. Part Four addresses the impact of political and social developments on theology through a number of case studies: the famous mihna instituted by al-Ma'mun (r. 189/813-218/833) as well as the mihna to which Ibn 'Aqil (d. 769/1367) was subjected; the religious policy of the Almohads; as well as the shifting interpretations throughout history (particularly during Mamluk and Ottoman times) of the relation between Ash'arism and Maturidism that were often motivated by political motives. Part Five considers Islamic theological thought from the end of the early modern and during the modern period.

Sabine Schmidtke is Professor of Islamic Intellectual History at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton. She has published extensively on Islamic and Jewish intellectual history.

Sabine Schmidkte: Introduction

Part I: Islamic Theolog(ies) during the formative and the Early Middle Period
1: Alexander Treiger: Origins of Kalam
2: Steven Judd: The Early Qadariyya
3: Cornelia Schöck: Jahm b. Safwan (d. 128/745-46) and the "Jahmiyya" and Dirar b. Amr (d. 200/815)
4: Mohammed-Ali Amir-Moezzi: Early Shi'i' Theology
5: Sidney Griffith: Excursus I: Christian Theological Thought during the First 'Abbasid Century
6: Patricia Crone: Excursus II: Ungodly Cosmologies
7: Racha el-Omari: The Mu'tazilite movement (I): Origins
8: David Bennett: The Mu'tazilite movement (II): The Early Phase
9: Sabine Schmidtke: The Mu'tazilite movement (III): The Scholastic Phase
10: Hassan Ansari: The Shi'i' Reception of Mu'tazilism (I): Zaydis
11: Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke: The Shi'i' Reception of Mu'tazilism (II): Twelver Shi'i'tes
12: Harith Bin Ramli: The Predecessors of Ash;'arism: Ibn Kullab, al-Muhasibi, and al-Qalanisi
13: Jan Thiele: Between Cordoba and Nisabur: The Emergence and Consolidation of Ash'arism (Fourth-Fifth/Tenth-Eleventh Century)
14: Wilferd Madelung: Ibadiyya
15: Aron Zysow: Karramiyya
16: Binyamin Abrahamov: Scripturalist and Traditionalist Theology
17: Ulrich Rudolph: Hanafi Theological Tradition and Maturidism
18: Peter Adamson: Philosophical Theology
19: Daniel de Smet: Isma'ili Theology
20: Martin Nguyen: Sufi Theological Thought

Part II: Intellectual Interactions of Islamic theology(ies)-Four Case Studies
21: Ulrich Rudolph: Occasionalism
22: Jan Thiele: Abu Hashim al-Jubba'i's (d. 321/933) Theory of the States (ahwal) and its Adaptation among Ash'arite Theologians
23: Ayman Shihadeh: Theories of Ethical Value in Kalam: A New Interpretation
24: Khaled el-Rouayheb: Theology and Logic

Part III: Islamic Theology(ies) During the Later Middle and Early Modern Period
25: Frank Griffel: Theology versus Philosophy: al-Ghazali's Tahafut al-falasifa and Ibn al-Malahimi's Tuhfat al-mutakallimin fi l-radd 'ala l-falasifa
26: Reza Pourjavady and Sabine Schmidtke: Twelver Shi'i'te Theology
27: Hassan Ansari, Sabine Schmidtke, and Jan Thiele: Zaydi Theology in Yemen
28: Heidrun Eichner: Handbooks in the Tradition of Later Eastern Ash'arism
29: Delfina Serrano: Later Ash'arism in the Islamic West
30: Aaron Spevack: Egypt and the later Ash'arite School
31: Gregor Schwarb: Excursus III: The Coptic and Syriac Receptions of neo-Ash'arite Theology
32: M. Sait Ozervarli: Theology in the Ottoman Lands
33: Nathan Spannaus: Theology in Central Asia
34: Asad Q. Ahmed and Reza Pourjavady: Theology in the Indian Subcontinent
35: Jon Hoover: Hanbali Theology

Part IV: Political and Social History and its Impact on Theology: Four Case Studies
36: Nimrod Hurvitz: al-Ma'mun (r. 189/813-218/833) and the Mihna
37: Livnat Holtzman: The Mihna of Ibn 'Aqil (d. 513/1119) and the Fitnat Ibn al-Qushayri
38: Maribel Fierro: The Religious Policy of the Almohads
39: Lutz Berger: Interpretations of Ash'arism and Maturidism among Mamluks and Ottomans

Part V: Islamic Theological Thought from the end of the Early Modern Period through the Modern Period
40: Rotraud Wielandt: Main Trends of Islamic Theological Thought from the late 19th Century to Present Times
41: Johanna Pink: Striving for a New Exegesis of the Qur'an
Introduction, Sabine Schmidkte
Part I: Islamic Theolog(ies) during the formative and the Early Middle Period
1. Origins of Kalām, Alexander Treiger
2. The Early Qadariyya, Steven Judd
3. Jahm b. Ṣafwān (d. 128/745-46) and the "Jahmiyya" and Ḍirār b. Amr (d. 200/815), Cornelia Schock
4. Early Shīʿī Theology, Mohammed-Ali Amir-Moezzi
5. Excursus I: Christian Theological Thought during the First ʿAbbāsid Century, Sidney Griffith
6. Excursus II: Ungodly Cosmologies, Patricia Crone
7. The Muʿtazilite movement (I): Origins, Racha el-Omari
8. The Muʿtazilite movement (II): The Early Phase, David Bennett
9. The Muʿtazilite movement (III): The Scholastic Phase, Sabine Schmidtke
10. The Shīʿī Reception of Muʿtazilism (I): Zaydīs, Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke
11. The Shīʿī Reception of Muʿtazilism (II): Twelver Shīʿites, Hassan Ansari and Sabine Schmidtke
12. The Predecessors of Ash;ʿarism: Ibn Kullāb, al-Muḥāsibī, and al-Qalānisī, Harith Bin Ramli
13. Ashʿarism in the East and the West, Jan Thiele
14. Ibāḍiyya, Wilferd Madelung
15. Karrāmiyya, Aron Zysow
16. Scripturalist and Traditionalist Theology, Binyamin Abrahamov
17. Ḥanafī Theological Tradition and Māturidism, Ulrich Rudolph
18. Philosophical Theology, Peter Adamson
19. Ismāʿīlī Theology, Daniel de Smet
20. Sufi Theological Thought, Martin Nguyen
Part II: Intellectual Interactions of Islamic theology(ies)-Four Case Studies
21. Occasionalism, Ulrich Rudolph
22. Abū Hāshim al-Jubbāʾī's (d. 321/933) Theory of the States (aḥwāl) and its Adaptation among Ashʿarite Theologians, Jan Thiele
23. Theories of Ethical Value in Kalām: A New Interpretation, Ayman Shihadeh
24. Theology and Logic, Khaled el-Rouayheb
Part III: Islamic Theology(ies) During the Later Middle and Early Modern Period
25. Theology versus Philosophy: al-Ghazālī's Tahāfut al-falāsifa and Ibn al-Malāḥimī's Tuḥfat al-mutakallimīn fi l-radd ʿalā l-falāsifa, Frank Griffel
26. Twelver Shīʿite Theology, Reza Pourjavady and Sabine Schmidtke
27. Zaydī Theology in Yemen, Hassan Ansari, Sabine Schmidtke, and Jan Thiele
28. Handbooks in the Tradition of Later Eastern Ashʿarism, Heidrun Eichner
29. Later Ashʿarism in the Islamic West, Delfina Serrano
30. Egypt and the later Ashʿarite School, Aaron Spevack
31. Excursus III: The Coptic and Syriac Receptions of neo-Ashʿarite Theology, Gregor Schwarb
32. Theology in the Ottoman Lands, M. Sait Ozervarli
33. Theology in Central Asia, Nathan Spannaus
34. Theology in the Indian Subcontinent, Asad Q. Ahmed and Reza Pourjavady
35. Ḥanbalī Theology, Jon Hoover
Part IV: Political and Social History and its Impact on Theology: Four Case Studies
36. al-Maʿmūn (r. 189/813-218/833) and the Miḥna, Nimrod Hurvitz
37. The Miḥna of Ibn ʿAqīl (d. 513/1119) and the Fitnat Ibn al-Qushayrī, Livnat Holtzman
38. The Religious Policy of the Almohads, Maribel Fierro
39. Interpretations of Ashʿarism and Māturīdism among Mamluks and Ottomans, Lutz Berger
Part V: Islamic Theological Thought from the end of the Early Modern Period through the Modern Period
40. Main Trends of Islamic Theological Thought from the late 19th Century to Present Times, Rotraud Wielandt
41. Striving for a New Exegesis of the Qurʿān, Johanna Pink