Theologie und Gesellschaft im 2. und 3. Jahrhundert Hidschra: Eine Geschichte des religiosen Denkens im fruhen Islam, 2 vols.

• Author: Frank, Richard M.

Here at length we have the first parts of the Sheikh Yusuf's long awaited magnum opus. Its preparation has extended over many years during which the data concerning several of the major elements were gathered, sifted, and examined in a series of more detailed studies. What we are offered here is a synthesis of considerable proportions and, viewed as a whole, of almost bewildering detail. The work, whose completion may be expected shortly, is to be distributed over six volumes, the first four containing the historical study and the last two translated texts together with commentary. The former are organized into four principal sections, the first pair of which are contained in the two present volumes. They are [sub-sections]A, "The Basic Features of Islamic Religiosity in the First Century A.H."; B, "The Islamic Provinces in the 2nd Century"; C, "Unification of Islamic Thought and the Flowering of Theology"; and D, "Summary of the Historical Problems." [sections]A is quite short, consisting of only 56 pages; [sections]B, extending over 1142 pages, is divided into five major subsections, the relative length of which offers a rough measure of the importance of the several provinces and their cities during the period as considered within the scope and focus of the book. They are Syria (vol. 1, pp. 65-147); Iraq, subdivided into Kufa [vol. 1, pp. 149-456] Basra [vol. 2, pp. 1-429]; and Wasit [pp. 403-39]; Iran (pp. 489-638); the Arabian Peninsula (pp. 639-712); and Egypt (pp. 713-42). The scheme for the entire historical study is laid out at the beginning (vol. 1, pp. xiii-xxviii) and the numbers of the various sections and subsections given (some with seven decimals!) so that forward references to the later volumes can be made already from the outset.(1) Though broadly understood as a general kind of religious discourse (religios bestimmtes Reden; vol. 1, p. vii), theology is here nevertheless distinguished from other specific forms of religious thought and activity, and accordingly the jurists, ascetics, and traditionists are discussed as such only as in one way or another they play a role in and interact with (or react to) the theological teachings of particular individuals and groups.

With respect to the ordering and presentation of the data, the primary focus of the work is "prosopographical" (vol. 1, pp. ix and 59), as, within each of the general, provincial sections, a host of individuals is sorted, distributed, and ordered under various...