Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought The State of Philosophy in the Arab World The ...

110 Pages·2017·3.76 MB·English

Kalam
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issue 1 | 2018 0
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ARTICLES 1
Kalam: Journal of Islamic Theology is a bi-annual
e
Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought u
multidisciplinary journal focusing on Islamic Theology, s
samir mahmoud s
Philosophy, Science and Spirituality published by Kalam i
journal of islamic theology
The State of Philosophy in the Arab World Research & Media. The journal will promote the development |
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ali el-konaissi of critical scholarship and new perspectives in the field g
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and will aim to be a medium through which contemporary l
o issue 1 | 2018
The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an Islamic theology can be developed in conversation and e
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nazif muhtaroglu engagement with related disciplines and perspectives on t Beauty & Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought

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Kalam Atomism & Contemporary Cosmology the Big Questions. i The State of Philosophy in the Arab World
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mehmet bülgen a
l The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an
Cover & Back Image: Dome of the Rock, Jerusalem © Peter Sanders Photography s
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INTERVIEW Cover Design by Sohail Nakhooda f Kalam Atomism & Contemporary Cosmology
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Ottoman Heritage & Modern Challenges:
l Interview with Recep Sentürk
Interview with Recep Sentürk a
n
r
BOOK REVIEWS u
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edward moad | yusuf lenfest | j
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samer dajani | valérie gonzales | a
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faheem hussain | shoaib malik a
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&

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CONTENTS
kalam journal • issue no.1 • 2018
3ARTICLES#
Beauty and Aesthetics in Classical Islamic Thought: An Introduction 7
samir mahmoud
Concerns on Philosophy in the Arab World: State of the Art 22
ali el-konaissi
The Miraculous Nature of the Qur’an: A Response to Oliver Leaman 45
nazif muhtarog˘ lu
Continuous Re-Creation: From Kalam Atomism to Contemporary Cosmology 59
mehmet bulg˘en
3INTERVIEW#
Recep Sentürk: Ottoman Heritage and Modern Challenges 68
interview by hamza karamali
3BOOK·REVIEWS#
Mulla Sadra | Ibrahim Kalin 87
edward moad
Virtue and the Moral Life | Werpehowski & Soltis (eds.) 89
yusuf lenfest
The Principles of Sufism | Th. Emil Homerin (ed. & tr.) 90
samer dajani
Sufi Bodies | Shahzad Bashir 93
valérie gonzalez
Religion without God | Ronald Dworkin 95
faheem hussain
Gunning for God | John Lennox 98
shoaib ahmed malik
Where the Conflict Really Lies | Alvin Plantinga 100
shoaib ahmed malik
Islam’s Quantum Question | Nidhal Guessoum 102
shoaib ahmed malik
Theology in the Context of Science | John Polkinghorne 104
shoaib ahmed malik
The Big Questions in Science and Religion | Keith Ward 106
shoaib ahmed malik

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OCCASIONALISM REVISITED
New Essays from the Islamic
and Western Philosophical Traditions
Nazif Muhtaroglu (eds.)
Bogazici University, Istanbul
Occasionalism is commonly understood as the theory that
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Fred Ablondi (Hendrix College); Marc Hight (Hampden Sydney
College); Ozgur Koca (Claremont School of Theology); Edward
Omar Moad (Qatar University); Walter Ott (University of
Virginia); Andrew Platt (Stony Brook University); Walter Schultz
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KRM PUBLICATIONS
OCCASIONALISM REVISITED
New Essays from the Islamic
and Western Philosophical Traditions
Nazif Muhtaroglu (eds.)
Bogazici University, Istanbul
Occasionalism is commonly understood as the theory that
ascribes all causal power to God, while treating cause-effect
relations in nature as customary events or occasions determined
by divine volition. Commonly misapprehended as originating in
Western philosophy it already appears in the texts of Muslim
scholars of the Ash‘ari and Maturidi school in the 10th century,
before being transmitted to Europe via the works of Averroes and
Maimonides in the 13th century. Yet it was only in the 17th cen-
tury among the Cartesian philosophers and most famously in the
works of Nicolas Malebranche that the theory flourished and was
taken seriously. Many of the great philosophers such as Gottfried
W. Leibniz and David Hume authored their works in light of the S
occasionalist critique of other theories of causation, especially the
much contested concept of natural causation as formulated by
Aristotle. This book aims to reveal unexplored historical roots E
of occasionalism in the Islamic and Western traditions in an effort 2017 | 312 pages
to contribute to the discussions centered around this theory.
$24.99 pb
As an attempt to reveal the historical roots and philosophical
L
dimensions of occasionalism, this volume illustrates the $39.99 hb
indispensability of this theory for those who want to understand
the central discussions and dynamics within Islamic and modern
Available from Amazon.com C
philosophy. Apart from showing the significance of occasionalism
in both traditions, this book draws out the contours and the
common ground for contemporary discussions on causation.
I
contributors to the volume
Fred Ablondi (Hendrix College); Marc Hight (Hampden Sydney
College); Ozgur Koca (Claremont School of Theology); Edward T
samir mahmoud
Omar Moad (Qatar University); Walter Ott (University of
ali el-konaissi
Virginia); Andrew Platt (Stony Brook University); Walter Schultz nazif muhtarog˘lu
(University of Northwestern, St. Paul); J. Aaron Simmons mehmet bulg˘en
(Furman University); Lisanne D’Andrea-Winslow (University R
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GOD, NATURE AND THE CAUSE
Essays on Islam and Science
Basil Altaie
Yarmouk University, Jordan
The philosophical conflict of religion and science is one of the
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invaluable and timely contribution on Islam and its interaction
with modern science.
Dr. Basil Altaieis Professor of Quantum Cosmology at Yarmouk University,
Jordan. Over the last 30 years he has lectured on physics at the undergraduate and
postgraduate levels, teaching Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Classical
Mechanics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Classical Electrodynamics, Quantum
Electrodynamics, Scientific Thinking, Mathematical Physics, History and the
Philosophy of Science.
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KRM PUBLICATIONS 3ARTICLES#
GOD, NATURE AND THE CAUSE
Beauty and Aesthetics in Classical
Essays on Islam and Science
Islamic Thought: An Introduction*
Basil Altaie
Yarmouk University, Jordan
Samir Mahmoud | American University of Beirut
The philosophical conflict of religion and science is one of the
most compelling and controversial issues today. Many intellectu-
als, scholars and philosophers from the West representing Chris-
tian and Jewish philosophical traditions have addressed this
burning question but little has been heard from their counterparts
Plato once wrote in the Symposium that “if there is anything
in the Muslim tradition. What do Muslims have to say on the worth living for, it is to behold beauty”. Beauty has been at the Dr. Samir Mahmoud is currently a
visiting assistant professor at the Depar-
subject, and what is the relationship between modern scientific heart of the Mediterranean philosophical tradition since Plato tment of Architecture at the American
developments and Muslim belief? What is the Islamic tradition of uttered these words. But the full scope of beauty for Plato included University of Beirut. In 2013–14 he was
the Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow
kalam, and does it have anything to contribute to modern science more than just shapes, colors, proportion, harmony, and melodies. In
at the Arts & Humanities Initiative
and philosophy? These are some of the critical questions ad- addition to physical objects it also included psychological and social at the American University of Beirut;
ones, characters and political systems, virtues and truths. It included The Barakat Postdoctoral Fellow at the
dressed by Basil Altaie in his latest book God, Nature, and the
Khalili Centre for Research in Art &
not only things that are a joy to see and hear, but everything which
Cause: Essays on Islam and Science. Material Culture, University of Oxford,
causes admiration, arouses delight, and brings enjoyment.1 Although 2012–13; and The Agha Khan Visiting
Altaie, physicist and philosopher rooted in classical Islamic
beauty was beheld and appreciated subjectively, for the most part it was Postdoctoral Fellow at MIT, 2012.
theology, argues that the kalam tradition—Islam’s deepest philo- He received his PhD in philosophical
considered an objective aspect of reality. But to what end? For none
aesthetics from the Faculty of Divinity,
sophical expression—provides a number of insights that can cre-
other than to behold the supreme beauty of The Good that transcends University of Cambridge, and holds an
ate a greater understanding of modern physics, and reconcile the 2016 | 240 pages its worldly manifestations. Plato’s notion of beauty was very broad and MA in the history of architecture and
urban design (UNSW, Australia) and an
apparent clash between science and religion. In this riveting set of included moral and cognitive values. This was not Plato’s personal idea,
$24.99 pb MA in philosophy (Cambridge).
essays, Altaie takes us from the early circles of Mu‘tazili and but the generally accepted view in the West and the Islamic east well
Ash‘ari kalam, to the universities of Western Europe, in a critical $39.99 hb into the eighteenth century.2
survey that engages thinkers like Ash‘ari, Al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina, However, for the past two centuries, discussions of beauty have
revolved around the field of inquiry we now call ‘aesthetics’. The term
Aristotle, Newton, Einstein, Stephen Hawking, Laplace,
Schrödinger, and others. This is an unprecedented and fascinat- Available from Amazon.com aesthetics derives from the Greek aisthetikos (sensitive, perceptive)
and from aisthanesthai (to perceive by the senses or by the mind, to
ing study, available in English for the first time through Kalam
feel). The Greek aisthesis and aistheta mean “things perceptible by the
Research & Media. This book provides an important resource for
senses”. Therefore, aesthetics initially had nothing to do with “beauty”
practitioners of philosophy, science, and theology, and offers an
or “art” as it is currently understood, so how did it become associated
invaluable and timely contribution on Islam and its interaction with beauty?
with modern science. It is at the hands of Alexander Baumgarten (d. 1762) in the eighteenth
century that aesthetics reaches its apotheosis as a separate branch of
* This paper is intended as a prelim-
Dr. Basil Altaieis Professor of Quantum Cosmology at Yarmouk University, philosophy, like logic, concerned with the study, understanding, and
inary exploration and is the first in a
Jordan. Over the last 30 years he has lectured on physics at the undergraduate and exploration of that which is perceivable by the senses. Since beauty is series of papers to come.
postgraduate levels, teaching Quantum Field Theory, Quantum Mechanics, Classical the most perfect kind of knowledge the senses can have, Baumgarten
Mechanics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Classical Electrodynamics, Quantum reasoned, then beauty and its effect on the beholder became the cen- 1 Wladyslaw Tatarkiewicz et al.,
Electrodynamics, Scientific Thinking, Mathematical Physics, History and the eds., History of Aesthetics (London:
tral focus of aesthetic investigations. Continuum, 2005), 1:113–14.
Philosophy of Science.
The term was popularized in English by the translation of Immanuel
2 Alfred Whitehead wasn’t exaggerat-
Kant (d. 1804), and used originally in its etymological sense as “the sci-
ing when he said: “The safest general
ence which treats of the conditions of sensuous perception”. Kant had characterization of the European
tried to correct Baumgarten, but the meaning Baumgarten had given philosophical tradition is that it con-
sists of a series of footnotes to Plato.”
to aesthetics attained popularity in English by the mid-nineteenth cen-
Process and Reality (New York: Free
tury and removed the word from any philosophical basis. It eventually Press, 1978), 39.
www.kalamresearch.com
kalam journal • 1/2018 7
became associated with the late nineteenth-century movement that
advocated “art for art’s sake”, whereby aesthetics became merely pre-
occupied with the subjective manner in which beauty is experienced.
As such it is a notion with firm roots in a specific Western cultural and
philosophical context.
By the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the so-called Liberal
Age, Arab thinkers were appropriating many Western categories and
developing an Arab aesthetics along similar lines.3 However, “aesthet-
ics” has no direct Arabic equivalent. The Encyclopaedia of Islam includes
an entry titled “ilm al-jamal”, which is a modern-day rendering. In the
entry the author writes that a general theory on aesthetics and “precise
definitions for the terms used in this field are lacking in the history of
Arab civilization”.4 Therefore, if aesthetics is understood as a theory
of art or beauty for its own sake then the medieval Islamic mentality
yielded no comparable ‘aesthetics’.
3 See Charbel Dagher, al-Fan wa If indeed aesthetics is a cultural and intellectual development pecu-
al-sharq [Art and the East], 2 vols. liar to the West then it is no surprise that Islam has no equivalent term
(Beirut: Arab Cultural Center, 2004).
or tradition. Coining neologisms like ilm al-jamal or “Islamic aesthet-
4 Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd ed., ics” may be anachronistic and the scholar can either abandon all use of
s.v. “Ilm al-Jamal” the term or else engage with it critically. I have opted for the second
option.5
5 The first approach is most exem-
plified in the writings and teachings The Encyclopaedia of Islam entry goes on to state quite rightly that
of what is known as the Perennialist “nevertheless, it is possible to trace [in Arabic/Islamic thought] certain
school.
features common to the elements of aesthetic emotion and to their
6 Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. “Ilm formal expression”.6 The lack of an exact Arabic equivalent to aesthet-
al-Jamal”. ics, therefore, does not mean that the correlata suggested by the term
“aesthetics” in modern discourse (perception, beauty, pleasure, image,
7 Edgar de Bruyne, Études d’esthétique
médiéval, trans. Eileen B. Hennessy form, proportion, harmony, color, creativity, art, etc.) were not dis-
(New York: F. Ungar Pub. Co., 1969), cussed. They were discussed at length but within often multiple and
221. Other pioneering works on
diverse discourses. Muslims not only enjoyed beauty but promoted the
aesthetics include: Tatarkiewicz,
History of Aesthetics; Umberto Eco, fine arts. What De Bruyne says about medieval Europe is also valid for
The Aesthetics of Thomas Aquinas, medieval Islam: “The fact that the medieval authors did not develop a
trans. Hugh Bredin (Cambridge,
systematic theory of the arts does not mean that they were not aware
MA: Harvard University Press, 1988);
Albert Hofstadter and Richard of the relationship between art and beauty.”7 For example, if we under-
Kuhns, eds., Philosophies of Art and stand aesthetics to refer to a wide range of issues connected with beauty
Beauty: Selected Readings in Aesthetics then the medieval Islamic tradition did have aesthetic theories. These
from Plato to Heidegger (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1964); theories were enmeshed in theological, philosophical, or jurispruden-
among many others. tial discussions or within wider intellectual contexts (literature, optics,
8 See Charbel Dahger, Islamic Art in alchemy) and not as a sui generis topic in any modern sense. The precise
Arabic Sources (Kuwait: Dar al-Athar nature of beauty depends on the author, period, and school of thought
al-Islamiyya, 1999). under consideration.
Likewise if we understand aesthetics to refer to issues of an artis-
9 As Ananda Coomaraswamy has
painstakingly shown, “Whereas tic nature, here again we find the medieval Islamic tradition replete
almost all other peoples have called with discussions and references to art, crafts, creativity, aesthetic plea-
their theory of art or expression
‘rhetoric’ and have thought of their sure, and the like.8 However, there is no l’ art pour l’ art.9 It must be
art as a form of knowledge, we have understood that the realm of the aesthetic was much larger than it is
invented an ‘aesthetics’ and think nowadays and our investigation must take this broader perspective.
of art as a kind of feeling.” In so far
as art has become preoccupied with Umberto Eco, in his seminal work Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages,
human sentiments and feelings it has aptly summarizes our point here:
“substituted psychological explana-
tions for the traditional conception
of art as an intellectual virtue and of We must look for the ways in which a given epoch solved
beauty as pertaining to knowledge”. for itself aesthetic problems as they presented themselves
Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought, at the time to the sensibilities and the culture of its people.
ed. William Wroth (Bloomington, IN:
World Wisdom, 2007), 1. Then our historical inquiries will be a contribution, not to
8 kalam journal • 1/2018
whatever we conceive ‘aesthetics’ to be, but rather to the
history of a specific civilization, from the standpoint of its
own sensibility and its own aesthetics consciousness.10
10 A comparable lack of a developed
theory of art in its modern sense is
Appropriating the “aesthetic” within this broader framework we equally lacking in medieval Europe
as medieval historians have already
can now define it as “the problem of the possible objective character,
indicated. Umberto Eco, Art and
and the subjective conditions, of what we call the experience of beauty. Beauty in the Middle Ages, (New Haven:
It thus refers also to all problems connected with the aesthetic object Yale University Press, 2002), 2. See
and aesthetic pleasure.”11 Therefore, any scholarly investigation into also Ernst Robert Curtis, European
Literature and the Latin Middle Ages,
aesthetics in classical Islamic thought must take as its starting point trans. Willard R. Trask (London:
the category of the beautiful and follow it as it leads into other “aes- Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979);
thetic” investigations. Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the
Middle Ages, trans. Frederick Hopman
This essay is a preliminary attempt to plunge into this difficult ter- (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books,
rain and try to bring to light some of the textual sources that have dis- 1965); Ananda Coomaraswamy,
cussed aesthetics at length in classical Islamic thought and some of the Christian and Oriental Philosophy of Art
(New York: Dover Publications, 1956).
challenges facing the would-be scholar.12
11 Umberto Eco, The Aesthetics of
Thomas Aquinas, trans. Hugh Bredin
HISTORIOGRAPHY AND APPROACH
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
The sources of Islamic aesthetics in classical Islamic thought are not Press, 1988), 3.
systematic treatises on the topic as can be found in the Classical and
12 The term “classical” is used to
Christian traditions, for those are quite lacking (Islam has no equiv- refer to the development of Islamic
alent to Vitruvius nor to the polemics between Abbot Suger and St. thought between the tenth and
eighteenth centuries, with a focus on
Bernard).13 Unlike Christianity, which inherited most of Hellenistic
the period up and till the thirteenth
culture, Islam eschewed most Hellenistic literary and cultural produc- century.
tions such as art and literature. It was not Homer or Sophocles that
13 There are a number of reasons
were translated into Arabic but the likes of Plato, Aristotle, and Galen.
that have been put forward as to why
Most of the classical texts that classify the sciences in the Islamic Islam lacks any explicit treatment of
tradition reveal a lack of a chapter or section dedicated to the topic art. Perhaps one explanation is the rel-
ative lack of controversy such as the
of beauty or aesthetics. For example, the first classifier of the sci-
iconoclastic movement of the seventh
ences in Islam, al-Kindi (d. 870), placed architecture and music in the century in Byzantium or the argu-
chapter on mathematics whereas today they would merit sections of ments between Abbot Suger and St.
Bernard. Both instances were fraught
their own under the rubric of aesthetics. Other classifiers of the sci-
with fierce debate over the nature
ences followed a similar pattern. Although there are discussions of of representation and the Divine.
poetry, music, architecture, writing, and beauty in al-Kindi, al-Farabi Islam’s eschewing of representation
altogether at an early stage may have
(d. 950), Ikhwan al-Safa, Ibn Sina (d. 1037), and al-Ghazali (d. 1111), and
spared it the fierce, yet, in retrospect,
a few scattered references to decorum, they were not treated as sepa- very informative debates over the
rate subjects of aesthetic interest. meaning and nature of art.
What further complicates the scholarly search is the fact that a
14 The philosophical treatment of
significant amount of the Islamic heritage is still in manuscript form beauty must be understood within
gathering dust on library shelves in Cairo and Istanbul or languishing the context of the Neoplatonic
philosophy of emanation. Particularly
in derelict private collections. Access to these manuscripts remains a
important for their discussion of
major challenge. For now the scholar will have to restrict the task to beauty was the fourth chapter of
what is available through publications. The scholar can approach the the Arabic compilation known as
available sources in any number of ways. the Theology of Aristotle (incorrectly
attributed to Aristotle) especially the
First, one could search a relatively cohesive school of thought paraphrase of Plotinus’s Ennead, vol. 8,
and tease out an aesthetic particular to it. For example, an Islamic “On Intelligible Beauty”. Against the
background of this text, Islamic phi-
philosophical aesthetics would start with the Neoplatonic distinc-
losophers (particularly al-Farabi and
tion between intelligible beauty and sensible beauty,14 the nature of Ibn Sina) developed the differences
love, and poetic beauty, diction, and inspiration (al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, between sensible and intelligible
beauty and the love and pleasure
and others).15 This pursuit may be much easier up until Ghazali, but
associated with each.
Islamic philosophy subsequent to Ghazali, and especially under the
influence of Ibn Arabi (d. 1240) and Suhrawardi (d. 1191), fused with 15 Salim Kemal, “Aesthetics”, in
tasawwuf and kalam and addressed issues not of a purely peripatetic HHiostsosreyin o fN Isalsarm ainc dP hOilloivsoeprh Lye, aemd. aSne yyed
nature. An Islamic philosophical aesthetics would have to include (London: Routledge, 1996), 2:969–79.
kalam journal • 1/2018 9