Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazali's Theory of Mystical Cognition and Its Avicennian Foundation.

AuthorJanssens, Jules
PositionBook review

Inspired Knowledge in Islamic Thought: Al-Ghazali's Theory of Mystical Cognition and Its Avicennian Foundation. By ALEXANDER TREIGER. Culture and Civilization in the Middle East, vol. 27. London: Routledge, 2012. Pp. xi + 183. 75 [pounds sterling], $125.

In the introduction, which is significantly entitled "A New Paradigm in Ghazalian Studies," Alexander Treiger asserts that the traditional image of al-Ghazali, who renounced philosophy and endorsed Sufism, is now crumbling, due in large part to Richard M. Frank's studies on al-Ghazali's theology and cosmology. Moreover, as he rightly observes, the Munqidh, al-Ghazali's so-called autobiography, which largely formed the basis of the traditional image, is essentially an apologetic work--one, I would add, full of literary tropes and rhetorical devices that make its historical value uncertain. Since Treiger takes at face value al-Ghazali's accounts of his first epistemological crisis or of his transformation from a scholar of this world, concerned with fame, social status, and prestige, to a scholar of the afterlife, he seems not to have been fully aware of this uncertainty. Al-Ghazali's accounts are not necessarily false, but neither are they unambiguously straightforward. Space limits do not allow me to go into detail, but suffice it to say that Franz Rosenthal and Vincenzo Poggi have shown that Kitab al-Wasaya of the mystic al-Muhasibi (ninth century) was a direct source of inspiration for a significant part of the Munqidh's introduction.

Aware of the tremendous complexity of al-Ghazali's thought, Treiger proposes five methodological assumptions: (1) al-Ghazali is a theologian in the generic sense (not a mutakallim); (2) Avicenna's philosophy constitutes an important key to understanding his thought; (3) for any given idea, one must go through the entire corpus; (4) al-Ghazali is consistent in his thought; and (5) he writes in a pedagogical rather than scientific way. With the exception of (4), I can only agree with these basic assumptions (although a study of the entire corpus is undoubtedly somewhat utopian since the attribution of significant works, such as Ma'arij al-quds, is still open to discussion, and we lack critical editions and exhaustive lexica). However, the claim of consistency in al-Ghazali's thought, even if it is only on a deep level, as specified by Treiger, seems to me to be somewhat gratuitous, especially insofar as it rejects, or at least makes highly improbable, any serious theoretical evolution in that thought. Is it not typical of a great thinker who tries to develop a new, encompassing system--among whom I count al-Ghazali--to fail to be completely consistent in the articulation of that system and to feel the necessity to reformulate several delicate issues, especially when becoming aware of all the implications of the system in question? Moreover, in al-Ghazali's case it can get complicated, since he copied entire texts or parts of texts of earlier Arabic thinkers, taken from different traditions, or even of his own earlier work, much of the time introducing modifications. Precisely these modifications are crucial for determining what typifies al-Ghazali's most profound thought and whether, or not, fundamental changes appear in his works. Given the lack of critical editions, however, it is almost impossible to know whether a given variant comes from al-Ghazali himself, or is a copyist's mistake, or even a printing error. That the difficulties surrounding a serious examination of al-Ghazali's thought are greater than Treiger believes also comes to the fore in his chronological presentation of twenty-four works. Even if it is reasonable to assume that the Mi'yar was written after the Ihya', this is probably only correct...

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