This book contains an edition and annotated translation of the remaining fragments of amaq?l?t treatise written by Ab? al-?Abb?s al-Qal?nis? at the end of the 3rd/9th or beginning of the 4th/10thmaq?l?t from the same period, al-Qal?nis? is a theologian who was never part of Mu?tazili circles but rather belongs to Ibn Kull?b's school that aims to defend Sunni doctrines by the use of the dialectical method. These are the only remaining fragments of the great albeit little-known theologian who probably never left the city of Rayy. They reflect his intellectual agenda of integrating the traditionnist milieux in the main theological debates of the 3rd/9th c. The history he writes of earlykal?m differs from that of the Mu?tazilis and the Hanbalis, who both agree that theologians and traditionnists are two mutually exclusive professions. Through the category of «?traditionnists theologians?» which appears for the first time in these fragments, al-Qal?nis? takes part with al-A??ar? in the great synthesis of the 4th/10thkal?m in the margins of orthodoxy.
Ziad Bou Akl, CNRS, École normale supérieure, Paris, France. |