The Rumi Forum presented “Theological rationalism in the medieval world of Islam” with Dr. Sabine Schmidtke Free University of Berlin.
The presentation outlines rationalism within the two major theological strands within Islam (Mu’tazilism and Ash’arism) and its reception among non-Muslim denominations (Christians, Samaritans and mainly Jews, Rabbanite and Karaite) and sketches the state of the art in current research. It will then be argued that given the unique cultural and intellectual commonality in the medieval world of Islam, the established one-dimensional pattern in scholarship needs to be replaced with a multi-dimensional disciplinarity that is justified by the periods and regions under investigation.
Sabine Schmidtke is professor of Islamic Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin and sectional editor for theology and philosophy of the third edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam. She has published widely on medieval Islamic theology, philosophy and interreligious polemics and edited a number of important texts in these fields. Among her most recent works special mention should be made here of Samaw’al al-Maghribi’s (d. 570/1175) Ifhâm al-Yahûd. The Early Recension (Wiesbaden 2006) and A Jewish Philosopher of Baghdad. `Izz al-Dawla Ibn Kammûna (d. 683/1284-85) and his Writings (Leiden 2006), both co-authored with Reza Pourjavady. Together with Camilla Adang and David Sklare, she has edited A Common Rationality. Mu’tazilism in Islam and Judaism [Istanbuler Texte und Studien; 15] Würzburg: Ergon Verlag, 2007.