A survey of the most important Maturidi authorities and their doctrinal textbooks, with a condensed overview of the bio-bibliography of Maturidi scholarship.

Al-Māturīdī (d. 944 CE), the prominent Hanafi scholar from Samarqand, succeeded in formulating a theological doctrine which is widely accepted in Sunni Islam to this day. The present volume which is a revised English translation of the German original published in 1997 examines his teachings by describing their principal characteristics and situating them in the history of kalām. Part one investigates the development of Hanafi thought in Transoxania before Māturīdī's time. Part two deals with the other religious groups (in particular the Mu'tazilites) which emerged in this area during his lifetime. Part three shows how he explained and defended the position of his predecessors; in doing so, he reformed their traditional views, thereby developing his own theology which then became the basis of a new tradition, viz. the Māturīdite school.

Ramon Harvey revisits the Muslim theologian Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 333/944) from Samarqand and puts his system, and that of the Māturīdī school, into lively dialogue with modern thought to show that a contemporary Muslim philosophical theology (kalām jadīd) can provide original and constructive answers to perennial theological questions.

This work is an analysis of one of the greatest (and largely forgotten) early Muslim theologians, Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Hanafi al-Mutakallim al-Matur idi al-Samarqandi (d. 333/944). It establishes evidence of al-Maturidi's profound influence upon Islamic theology during his time and discusses his method, theory of knowledge and theological ideas concerning the world, and the relation of God to man.

Despite its status as one of the great traditions of Sunni Islamic systematic theology, the Māturīdī school and its major texts have remained largely inaccessible to a Western audience. As the first reader of Māturīdī theology ever produced in a Western language, this volume meets an urgent need among scholars and general readers. It features selections ranging from the founder, Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī, to key texts from the broader Māturīdī tradition up to the 18th century. Each selection includes the original Arabic text and an annotated English translation, preceded by a short introduction. The volume's structure mirrors the classical compendia of Islamic systematic theology, known as kalām , exploring questions of Epistemology and Ontology; Metaphysics; Prophethood; Faith, Knowledge and Acts; and Free Will, Predestination, and the Problem of Evil.

This accessible work balances the image of Islam as aggressive and fanatical with an objective picture of the main features of Muslim history and the compulsions of Muslim society.

This book provides an analytical study of the Māturīdite school of theology, exploring not only the rise of the school, but also mapping out seminal phases in its subsequent intellectual development. Includes a critical Arabic edition of the treatise entitled al-Ḥādī (The Guide) by al-Imam al-Khabbāzī (d. 691 AH/ 1292 AD).

This clearly written text explores the rational theology of Islam, the conflict between the "defenders of God" and the "defenders of reason", and the controversy's historical roots.