Kelam İlminin Bilimsel Kimliğiyle İlgili Tartışmaların Memlük Coğrafyasındaki Yansımaları
Reflections of the Debates on the Scientific Character of Islamic Theology in Mamlūk Territory

Summary/Abstract: The question of what course religious thought have taken between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, especially in Egypt and Damascus under the Mamlūks reign deserves to be examined from various aspects. The theological, philosophical and religious formations that shaped the theoretical discourse in Mamlūk lands has been influenced by cultural inputs from various cities such as the Anatolian cities, notably Konya, Kayseri, Sivas; the Tabrīz-centered Īlkhānate cities, especially Baghdād, Shīrāz, Balkh, Merv; the Samarqand-centered Tîmūrids which reigned over central Asia and Iranian lands; the Delhi Sultanate’s territories and from the Maghrib-centered Andalusia. These channels played an important part in transmission of scholarly knowledge to the Mamlūk lands. The course of Islamic thought after the twelfth century which witnessed a confrontation of religious thought with Avicennian philosophy is possibly considered as a quest for a riverbed to flow away. In this respect the endeavours of Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) to trace the Avicennian philosophy’s implications and to introduce philosophical character to Kalām on the one hand and Ibn al-Arabī’s (öl. 638/1240) criticisms against the peripatetic philosophy and Kalām discourse on the other represents the quests for resolutions to overcome the crisis of religious thought. The Mamlūks who ruled especially Syria and Egypt between the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries, appeared in the period in which the aformentioned quests have been tested. In this sense, the question that needs to be answered with regard to Kalām discourse is that: Is the attempt to appropriate of Avicenna’s metaphysics’ fundamental concepts and distinctions into Kalām compatible with basic codes and foundations of religious thought? In this context, with regard to Islamic theology (Kalām), three intellectual approaches draw attention: i. philosophical theology represented by scholars such as Shams al-Dīn Aykī (d. 697/1298), Safī al-Dīn al-Hindī (d. 715/1315), Shams al-Dīn al-Isfahānī (d. 749/1349), Ibn Sharaf Shāh (d. 715/1315), Tāj al-Dīn Tabrīzī (d. 746/1345), Ibn Mubārak Shāh (d. 784/1382), Ibn al-Humām (d. 861/1457), Shams al-Dīn Bisātī (d. 842/1439). ii. creedal theology, i.e. using speculative theology only in service for building the creed, represented by scholars such as Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī (d. 771/1370). iii. Ibn Taymiyya’s (d. 728/1328) criticism for philosophical theology. The aim of this study is to determine the ways in which philosophical theology was transmitted and to analyse the two intellectual approaches toward philosophical theology within the debate on the scientific character of Islamic theology. The representatives of the first, i.e. the philosophical theology in Mamlūk lands reflect Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s followers’ legacy. The rise of philosophical theology after al-Rāzī and his followers contains a twofold process: The first is to trace Avicennian philosophy’s implications and encountering with them. The second aspect is the transformation of Kalām discourse by exercising philosophical notions and categories on it. This twofold process led to the second and third approaches among Mamlūk scholars. The second one is to defend the legitimacy of philosophical theology and reject the assertion that its philosophical aspect did not flourish from its exact nature indigenously and therefore led to contradictions with the fundamental principles of religious thought. The point this approach must face is whether the integration of some philosophical notions and categories with the science of kalam has led to a paradigmatic shift which would affect its structure and nature. The third is to suggest that the philosophical theology deserves to be labelled as a shifting riverbed in which the religious thought have been flew away. According to this point of view the thing to do is to elucidate the rationality underlying the data in the sacred texts. Beside the problem of constructing a rational theology merely on the basis of sacred texts, the point that this approach must face is whether this elucidation itself is a kind of philosophical theology.

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