Special Announcements
Dr. Rahmi Oruç
Congratulations to Dr. Rahmi Oruç, on the successful defense of his PhD dissertation (Ibn Haldun University, 2022) entitled “What do we do with arguments: Situating Munazara in contemporary argumentation scholarship.”
Methodos special issue “Argumentation and Arabic Philosophy of Language”
In June we were very pleased to announce publication of the latest online, open access issue of Methodos, dedicated to “Argumentation and Arabic Philosophy of Language,” co-edited by Shahid Rahman and myself, with chief editor Leone Gazziero and editorial secretary Anne Dourlens. The issue includes an introductory essay by Shahid and myself, followed by ten articles by authors in relevant fields—one of which includes a first-time critical edition of an intriguing text on dialectic. Congratulations to all authors and editors, and especially to Leone and Shahid, the driving powerhouses behind it all.
https://journals.openedition.org/methodos/8605
The articles are as follows:
Omer Awass: Modalities of Argumentation, Scriptural Reasoning, and the Structural Characteristics of Early Islamic Theological Discourse
Abdessamad Belhaj: Al-Ashʿarī’s Adab al-jadal : A Few Remarks on its Genre
Ali-Reza Bhojani: Linguistic philosophy in modern uṣūl al-fiqh: al-Ākhund al-Khurāsānī (d. 1911) on seeking something without willing it to be
Alexander Lamprakis: Did the Arabic Tradition Know a More Complete Version of Alexander’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Topics? The Evidence from Ps-Jābir’s Kitāb al-Nukhab / Kitāb al-Baḥth
Abdurrahman Ali Mihirig: Analogical Arguments in the Kalām Tradition: Abū l-Ma‘ālī al-Juwaynī and Beyond
Necmettin Pehlivan & Hadi Ensar Ceylan: Old Rivalry, Eternal Friendship: The Story of an Opponent-al-Fuṣūl in the ʿilm al-naẓar
Jens Ole Schmitt: Preferring Formal Language over the Face? Avicenna on the Physiognomical Syllogism. Some Observations
Shahid Rahman & Walter Edward Young: In Existence and in Nonexistence: Types, Tokens, and the Analysis of Dawarān as a Test for Causation
Aaron Spevack: Defending Definitions: The Tools of Disputation in Logic of al-Fanārī
Walter Edward Young: On the Logical Machinery of Post-Classical Dialectic: The Kitāb ʿAyn al-Naẓar of Shams al-Dīn al-Samarqandī (d. 722/1322)
Conferences and Lectures
İSAR Osmanlı’da İlimler Sempozyumu Dizisi-VII
Dec 2021 saw the 7th annual İSAR symposium in Istanbul: İSAR Osmanlı’da İlimler Sempozyumu Dizisi-VII, “Osmanlı’da İlm-i Mantık ve Münazara: Âlimler, Eserler ve Meseleler” (Logic and Argumentation Theory in the Ottoman Period: Scholars, Works, Problems)
Program and abstract booklet available here:
Playlist of Lecture and Panel videos on İSAR YouTube channel
Islamic Legal Genres
2021 saw, throughout the year, a series of “Monthly Lectures on Islamic Legal Genres,” organized by Intisar Rabb (Harvard Law School), Hakkı Arslan (University of Münster), and Necmettin Kızılkaya (Istanbul University).
https://www.uni-muenster.de/SFB1385/projektbereichb/teilprojektb03/lectures.html
Of the ten lectures delivered, two touched on Islamicate dialectics:
Walter Edward Young, McGill University
“Form, Function and Historical Development of Genres of Juristic Dialectic (ʿilm al-jadal and ‘ilm al-khilāf)”
Anas Sarmini, 29 Mayıs University in Istanbul
“Form, Function and Historical Development of Ikhtilāf al-fuqahāʾ as a Genre”
Organizations (New or Recently Learned of)
Ibn Haldun University, Munazara and Argumentation Ethics Research Center (ArguMunazara)
https://argumunazara.ihu.edu.tr/en/home/
Description from website: “Munazara and Argumentation Ethics Research Center (ArguMunazara) aims to contribute to the theoretical development and application of argumentation theory, and to the practical application of the art of debate, taking into account the dimensions of critical thinking and ethical action. The center aims to pave the way for benefiting from critical thinking and debate manners in Ibn Haldun University, as well as through national and international activities. To this end, the center compiles both traditional and contemporary research to redefine and transform Munazara into a fruitful framework. It works to disseminate its research and other relevant studies both in lectures and research within the university and in other national and international activities.”
Among the most relevant projects of ArguMunazara is:
Adab in Dialogue: Developing Argumentative Virtues in a Divided World (ADAB)
https://munazara.ihu.edu.tr/en/objectives
Description from website: “ADAB is a project undertaken by members of the ArguMunazara Centre at Ibn Haldun University and funded by the John Templeton Foundation. ADAB’s general outlook encompasses all people and institutions involved in debate and argumentation today. Our direct intervention will focus on university debate practices, with institutions engaged in argumentation and debate in the Muslim world. We conceive the work developed in this project as a seed for the transformation of debate culture and public communication in the Muslim world and beyond, to a multidimensional, multi-perspective practice of argumentative manners and virtues. ADAB’s planned activities are intended to amend pitfalls in contemporary argumentative practices and to enhance public argumentation as means of enabling collective decision-making and problem-solving. Accordingly, the project focuses on the Ādāb al-Baḥth wa al-Munāẓara tradition so as to extract resources capable of mitigating some of the main communicative problems of contemporary societies. Specifically, ADAB addresses the competitive, applause-driven, and victory-focused framework, not to mention the mindset, that govern the dominant debate culture. In response, ADAB reframes the inclusive and fair components of competitive debate in virtuous and cooperative terms, which underlie Munāẓara’s norms and procedures.”
Publications (New or Recently Learned of)
ʿAbd Allāh, Muḥammad Fatḥī. Al-Jadal bayna Arisṭū wa Kanṭ: Dirāsa Muqārana. Beirut: al-Muʾassasa al-Jāmiʿiyya lil-Dirāsāt wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Taqzīʿ, 1995.
Bernand, Marie. “Controverses Médiévales Sur Le Dalīl Al-Ḫiṭāb”, Arabica 33, 3 (1986): 269-294, doi: https://doi-org.proxy3.library.mcgill.ca/10.1163/157005886X00208
Bilik, Abdurrahim. “Fıkıh Âlimleri Tarafından Telif Edilen Cedel Eserlerinde Soru Sorma ve Cevap Verme Yöntemi. Methods of Asking and Answering Questions in Jadal Works Written by Fiqh Scholars.” İslam Tetkikleri Dergisi – Journal of Islamic Review 11,2 (2021): 569-601.
Bilik, Abdurrahim. “Cedel Müelliflerinin Bir Münazara Alanı Olarak Hadis Deliline Yaklaşımları (Şîrâzî Örneği).” In GİİAS Uluslararası Günümüzde İslami İlimler Algısı Sempozyumu I: Sünnet Algısı Bildiriler Kitabı, pp. 417-427. Ed. Tevhit Ayengin. Bayburt: Bayburt Üniversitesi Yayınları (Yayın No: 30), 2021.
El Shamsy, Ahmed. Review of The Dialectical Forge: Juridical Disputation and the Evolution of Islamic Law by Walter Edward Young. Journal of the American Oriental Society, 141/3 (July-September 2021), pp. 706-708.
Ibn al-Miʿmār al-Baghdādī, Kamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad. Mukhtaṣar Nihāyat al-Amal fī ʿIlm al-Jadal. Ed. ʿAbd al-Wāḥid Jahdānī. Amman: Dār al-Fatḥ lil-Dirāsāt wa-l-Nashr, 2021.
Iqbal, Muhammad. Arsyad Al-Banjari’s Insights on Parallel Reasoning and Dialectic in Law : The Development of Islamic Argumentation Theory in the 18th Century in Southeast Asia. Cham: Springer, 2022.
Rahman, Shahid, Walter Young, and Farid Zidani. “It Ought to be Forbidden! Islamic Heteronomous Imperatives and the Dialectical Forge.” In Lógica, Conocimiento y Abducción. Homenaje a Ángel Nepomuceno, 97-114. Eds. Cristina Barés, Francisco J. Salguero, Fernando Soler. Cuadernos de Lógica, Epistemología y Lenguaje 15. London: College Publications, 2021. https://www.collegepublications.co.uk/cuadernos/?00015
Rahman, Shahid, Farid Zidani, and Walter Young. “Ibn Ḥazm on Heteronomous Imperatives. A Landmark in the History of the Logical Analysis of Norms.” In Agency, Norms, Inquiry, and Artifacts: Essays in Honor of Risto Hilpinen, pp. 139-171. Eds. P. McNamara, A. Jones, and M. Brown. Cham, Switzerland: Springer (Synthese Library 454, Studies in Epistemology, Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science), 2022. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-90749-5_8
Sklare, David. “Epistemology in the Service of Polemic: Yūsuf al-Baṣīr’s Kitāb al-Istiʿānah: Text and Translation.” In Polemical and Exegetical Polarities in Medieval Jewish Cultures: Studies in Honour of Daniel J. Lasker, eds. Ehud Krinis, Nabih Bashir, Sara Offenberg and Shalom Sadik, pp. 97-134. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2021.
Widigdo, Mohammad Syifa Amin. “Arab-Islamic or Greek Dialectics? Revisiting the Origins and Development of Jadal.” Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations (2021), DOI: 10.1080/09596410.2021.1904692.
Young, Walter Edward. “The Formal Evolution of Islamic Juridical Dialectic: A Brief Glimpse.” In New Developments in Legal Reasoning and Logic: From Ancient Law to Modern Legal Systems, pp. 83-102. Eds. Shahid Rahman, Matthias Armgardt, Hans Christian Nordtveit Kvernenes. Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning 23. Dordrecht; New York; Cham: Springer, 2021. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-70084-3_4
Young, Walter Edward. Foreword. In Muhammad Iqbal, Arsyad al-Banjari’s Insights on Parallel Reasoning and Dialectic in Law: The Development of Islamic Argumentation Theory in 18th Century Southeast Asia, pp. vii-x. Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning 25. Cham: Springer. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91676-3
Umm al-Qurrā University MA and PhD partial editions of al-Shīrāzī’s Nukat fī l-Khilāf
al-Shīrāzī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. Al-Nukat fī l-Masāʾil al-Mukhtalaf fīhā bayna al-Shāfiʿī wa Abī Ḥanīfa. 4 vols. Ed. Zakariyyāʾ ʿAbd al-Razzāq al-Miṣrī. PhD Diss. Umm al-Qurrā University, 1984. [From start of “Kitāb al-Buyūʿ” to end of “Masāʾil Ummahāt al-Awlād.”]
al-Shīrāzī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. Al-Nukat fī l-Masāʾil al-Mukhtalaf fīhā bayna al-Shāfiʿī wa Abī Ḥanīfa. Ed. Mashāʿil Fahad Sulaymān al-Ḥassūn. MA Thesis. Umm al-Qurrā University, 2002. [From start of “Kitāb al-Ḥajj” to end of “Kitāb al-Nudhūr.”]
al-Shīrāzī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. Al-Nukat fī l-Masāʾil al-Mukhtalaf fīhā bayna al-Shāfiʿī wa Abī Ḥanīfa. 2 vols. Ed. Samrāʾ Nūr al-Dīn Bīkar. MA Thesis. Umm al-Qurrā University, 2004. [From start of “Kitāb al-Ṭahāra” to end of “Masāʾil Awqāt al-Nahy.”]
al-Shīrāzī, Abū Isḥāq Ibrāhīm. Al-Nukat fī l-Masāʾil al-Mukhtalaf fīhā bayna al-Shāfiʿī wa Abī Ḥanīfa. Ed. Ṣabāḥ bint Akbar Ḥusayn Akbar. MA Thesis. Umm al-Qurrā University, 2004. [From start of “Kitāb al-Jināyāt” to end of “Kitāb al-Iqrār.”]
Umm al-Qurrā University MA partial editions of al-Fanārī’s Fuṣūl al-Badāʾiʿ
Al-Fanārī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥamza. Taḥqīq Kitāb Fuṣūl al-Badāʾiʿ fī Uṣūl al-Sharāʾiʿ li-Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥamza al-Fanārī [d. 834 H] min al-Mabādiʾ al-Aḥkāmiyya ilā ʿAwāriḍ al-Ahliyya. Ed. Ḥasan b. Hāshim b. Aḥmad al-Mālikī. MA Thesis, Jāmiʿat Umm al-Qurā, 1428 [2007]?.
Al-Fanārī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥamza. Taḥqīq Kitāb Fuṣūl al-Badāʾiʿ fī Uṣūl al-Sharāʾiʿ li-Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥamza al-Fanārī [d. 834 H] min Awwal Dalīl al-Kitāb ilā Nihāyat Dalīl al-Sunna. Ed. Ḥāmid b. ʿAbd Allāh b. Saʿd al-Ḥuṣaynī. MA Thesis, Jāmiʿat Umm al-Qurā, 1428 [2007]?.
Al-Fanārī, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥamza. Taḥqīq Kitāb Fuṣūl al-Badāʾiʿ fī Uṣūl al-Sharāʾiʿ li-Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad b. Ḥamza al-Fanārī [d. 834 H] min Awwal al-Ijmāʿ ilā Nihāyat al-Kitāb. Ed. Yāsir b. Muḥammad b. Ṣāliḥ Hawsāwī. MA Thesis, Jāmiʿat Umm al-Qurā, 1428 [2007]?.
Society for the Study of Islamicate Dialectical Disputation (SSIDD) 