Oryantalistlerin Mâtürîdîlik Algısı: Ulrich Rudolph ve Angelika Brodersen Örneği
Orientalists’ Perception of Māturīdism: The Case of Ulrich Ru-dolph and Angelika Brodersen

Summary/Abstract: Māturīdi kalām has been neglected not only in the Islamic world but also in the studies by orientalist scholars. An examination of the historical background of orientalist scholars’ studies on kalām reveals that they mostly focus on Muʿtazila, Ashʿarīsm, Shīʿa and smaller divisions that have not survived to the present day. The recognition of Māturidism, which had not been addressed by orientalist studies until the 1950s or 1960s, along with its being a focus of studies, positively affected the fate of the studies on Māturidism in the Orientalist literature. Although it was a neglected area, Māturidism, has recently been recognized in the West thanks to the latest studies on it. This study addresses how the orientalist school views the school of Māturīdi kalām, how Māturīdism is perceived in the orientalist literature and the historical background of the related studies. It also aims to analyze the reason why Māturīdism was described as “the unknown kalām” or “the fame of the unknown” in the orientalist studies on Māturīdism and to review the studies on the relationship between this school and Hanafism or Murji'a. Even though Māturidism was mentioned in some articles at the end of the 19th century, it was not until the 1960s that an independent book was written on it. A limited number of studies could be identified before that time, generally written based on the teachings of Murji'a and Abū Ḥanīfa. The purpose of the present study is to identify when the orientalist tradition recognized the Māturīdi kalām and then to exhibit the perception of Māturīdism in orientalist studies. The focus of the study is the works of Ulrich Rudolph and Angelika Brodersen, who carried out individual studies on Māturīdism. Globally considered, the beginning of the studies on Māturidism in the second half of the twentieth century coincide with the analysis and publication of the works of Imam al-Māturīdī and other Māturīdī scholars. It is Ulrich Rudolph, who wrote the first independent book on Māturīdism in the orientalist tradition. Ulrich Rudolph’s work Al-Māturīdī und die Sunnitische Theologie in Samarkand (al-Māturīdi and Sunni/Ahl al-Sunnah Kalām in Samarkand), which was composed based on his associate professorship studies, comes foremost among the works that have comprehensively introduced Māturīdism to the Western world. After this particular work, studies on Māturīdism in the orientalist literature began to proliferate. Angelika Brodersen, one of the leading Western researchers who examined the Māturīdi kalām in detail, analyzed and published Abū Ishāq al-Saffār’s Talkhīṣ al-adilla. However, by publishing her work Der unbekannte Kalām (the Unknown Kalām), she evaluated the theological perspectives of Māturīdism by comparing the views of Māturīdi scholars with each other. Both of these orientalist researchers describe their purpose in composing their work as introducing Māturīdism and revealing its unknown aspects. Described by both orientalists as “the unknown kalām” or “the fame of the unknown”, Māturīdism is explained by recent studies, and its perspectives on creed are elaborated on. What is emphasized by these labels is that its basic perspectives are not known well, rather than its being an unknown school. Globally considered, there is obscurity arising from the fact that the views on Māturīdism, which were expressed using the phrase “the followers of Abū Ḥanīfa” in the previous studies in the West, have not been associated with Imam al-Māturīdi. However, today, thanks to the recent increase in the studies on Māturīdism, this state of obscurity and vagueness has begun to clear up. Such a state of being unknown and less famous has been eliminated both in the Orientalist tradition and in the Islamic geography, thanks to the introduction of the two main works of Imam al-Māturīdi to the scholarly community and the improved access to those of Māturīdi scholars. By reviewing the orientalist literature, the present study builds the ground for the idea that the theological views of Imam al-Māturīdi, whose reputation is known but theological views are unknown, have begun to gain publicity in line with his fame in the current Western literature.

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