This thesis sets out to examine the significance of al-Ghazali's text entitled Fada' ih al-Batiniyya wa fada' il al-Mustazhiriyya, by placing it against the environment--political and social--in which it was written, and by focussing on the varying styles of argumentation contained in it. / This examination shows that, in addition to being a polemical tract against the Isma$ sp{ rm c}$ilis of his time, al-Ghazali also wrote this work in order to confront the intellectual challenges posed by the so-called Isma$ sp{ rm c}$ili doctrine of ta$ sp{ rm c}$lim. Challenges which impinged on the status of the Sunni Caliph per se and, by extension, on the Caliph's relationship with the Saljuq Sultan. More importantly, for al-Ghazali these intellectual challenges also impinged on the authority of Sunni fiqh and kalam, and hence carried implications for the role and status of the $ sp{ rm c}$ulama'. In responding to these challenges, al-Ghazali draws upon styles of argumentation shaped by the textual traditions of: adab al-firaq, kalam, fiqh, siyasa shar$ sp{ rm c}$iyya and nasihat al-muluk. / The intellectual diversity of the ideas and arguments in this text is emblematic of the complex set of concerns with which al-Ghazali was engaged, embracing the broad themes of orthodoxy, reason and authority in medieval Islamic thought and society. Above all, in writing this text al-Ghazali brought to bear a degree of sophistication and originality which has hitherto been inadequately studied by other researchers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.67531 |
| Date | January 1993 |
| Creators | Mitha, Farouk |
| Contributors | Hallay, Wael B. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Institute of Islamic Studies.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001335890, proquestno: AAIMM87785, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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