Islamic theology is a new invention in today’s secular universities, at least when it comes to studying Islam with a critical and constructive approach. As a muslim practice theology is often perceived as ʿilm al-kalām, with its use of philosophical method to gain knowledge of God. In the work Modern Muslim Theology Martin Nguyen looks for a different definition of theology where he defines theology in its fullest sense as a way to engage yourself with the Divine. The question is, is this theology as such modern? The Sufis - and in this work Abū ʾAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī from Khurasan - where concerned more with an ascetic way of living rather than one fashioned by systematic doctrine, as a way to knowledge and union with God. This work in Islamic systematic theology investigates al-Sulamī’s theology and shines light on a classic example of a theology of engagement, with its possibilities of being an alternative way of knowledge in relation to kalām in Islamic theology. The study shows that al-Sulamī’s Sufism concerned with denegrating the ego-self and refinement of character constitutes its own path to theology. The study also shows that this form of theology is a challenge to the way in which theology is conducted at secular universities.

Islamic theology is a new invention in today’s secular universities, at least when it comes to studying Islam with a critical and constructive approach. As a muslim practice theology is often perceived as ʿilm al-kalām, with its use of philosophical method to gain knowledge of God. In the work Modern Muslim Theology Martin Nguyen looks for a different definition of theology where he defines theology in its fullest sense as a way to engage yourself with the Divine. The question is, is this theology as such modern? The Sufis - and in this work Abū ʾAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sulamī from Khurasan - where concerned more with an ascetic way of living rather than one fashioned by systematic doctrine, as a way to knowledge and union with God. This work in Islamic systematic theology investigates al-Sulamī’s theology and shines light on a classic example of a theology of engagement, with its possibilities of being an alternative way of knowledge in relation to kalām in Islamic theology. The study shows that al-Sulamī’s Sufism concerned with denegrating the ego-self and refinement of character constitutes its own path to theology. The study also shows that this form of theology is a challenge to the way in which theology is conducted at secular universities.

This thesis examines the reinvention of jihād ideology in twelfth‑century al‑Shām. In modern scholarship there is a tendency to speak of a revival of jihād in the twelfth century, but discussion of this revival has been dominated by study of the practice of jihād rather than of the ideology of jihād. This thesis addresses this imbalance by studying two twelfth‑century Damascene works: the Kitāb al‑jihād (Book of Jihād) of ʿAlī b. Ṭāhir al‑Sulamī (d. 500/1106), and the al‑Arbaʿūn ḥadīthan fī al‑ḥathth ʿala al‑jihād (Forty Hadiths for Inciting Jihād) of Abū al‑Qāsim Ibn ʿAsākir (d. 571/1176). Through discussion of these texts, this thesis sheds light on twelfth‑century perceptions of jihād by asking what their authors meant when they referred to jihād, and how their perceptions of jihād related to the broader Islamic discourse on jihād. A holistic approach is taken to these works; they are discussed not only in the context of the 'master narrative' of jihād, wherein juristic sources have been privileged over other non‑legal genres and corpora, but also in the context of the Sufi discourse of jihād al‑nafs, and the earliest traditions on jihād which thrived from the eighth century onwards on the Muslim‑Byzantine frontier. This thesis argues that both al‑Sulamī and Ibn ʿAsākir integrated elements from these different traditions of jihād in order to create models of jihād suited to their own political contexts, and that it is only in the context of a more nuanced appreciation of jihād ideology that their attempts can be properly understood. At the same time, this thesis argues against the model of the 'counter‑crusade', which holds that the revival of jihād began in earnest only in the middle of the twelfth century, by stressing that there was no delay between the arrival of the Franks and attempts to modify jihād ideology.