🏔 EP039 Dr. Ramon Harvey on Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d.944CE): Life, works and legacy of the seminal Sunni theologian

Abbasid History Podcast

Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d.944CE) was a Persian Sunni Hanafi jurist, theologian, and scriptural exegete based in Samarkand. His eponymous codification of Sunni creed became the dominant theological school for Sunni Muslims in Central Asia and later enjoyed a preeminent status as the school of choice for both the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire.

Timestamps

01:40 Al-Māturīdī was born at Māturīd, a village or quarter in the neighbourhood of Samarkand during the reign of the caliph al-Mutawakkil whose main merit appears to be putting an end to the Muʿtazilite so-called Rationalist Mihna inquisition of Traditonalist Sunni voices. Outline for us the socio-political context of Al-Māturīdī 's life and what we know about his biography.

10:20 Al-Māturīdī's conclusions are remarkably similar to his peer in Baghdad Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī although the two never met. How do we go about describing Al-Māturīdī's theology and what was the intellectual context for its composition?

20:29 Al-Māturīdī has a number of works. Tell us about them as well the genealogy of later commentaries, supra-commentaries and summaries of his theology.

20:54 I want to turn before we conclude to your current work. You have taken a recent interest in the works of a figure seemingly very far removed from 9th century Samarkand, and that's the 20th century German philosopher, Edmund Husserl. Tell us more about that.

30:42 And finally before we end tell us where listeners can turn next to learn more about today's topic and what are other current projects that listeners can anticipate?

For more on our guest: ramonharvey.com

His latest book: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-transcendent-god-rational-world.html

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