Une doxographie sunnite du IVe/Xe siècle by Bou Akl, Ziad;

Short description:

The series is devoted to the study of scientific and philosophical texts from the Classical and the Islamic world handed down in Arabic. Through critical text editions and monographs, it provides access to ancient scientific inquiry as it developed in a continuous tradition from Antiquity to the modern period. All editions are accompanied by translations and philological and explanatory notes.

Long description:

This book contains an edition and annotated translation of the remaining fragments of a maqālāt treatise written by Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qalānisī at the end of the 3^rd/9^th or beginning of the 4^th/10^th c. Unlike al-Balḫī and al-Ašʿarī, the two main authors of maqālāt from the same period, al-Qalānisī is a theologian who was never part of Muʿtazili circles but rather belongs to Ibn Kullāb’s school that aims to defend Sunni doctrines by the use of the dialectical method. These are the only remaining fragments of the great albeit little-known theologian who probably never left the city of Rayy. They reflect his intellectual agenda of integrating the traditionnist milieux in the main theological debates of the 3^rd/9^th c. The history he writes of early kalām differs from that of the Muʿtazilis and the Hanbalis, who both agree that theologians and traditionnists are two mutually exclusive professions. Through the category of «　traditionnists theologians　» which appears for the first time in these fragments, al-Qalānisī takes part with al-Ašʿarī in the great synthesis of the 4^th/10^th c. However, despite all their similarities, their two historiographical projects differ greatly one from another. The study preceding the edition sheds a new light on the strategy of al-Qalānisī in order to explain the reasons behind the success of al-Ašʿarī whose school relegated this early and flourishing period of Sunni kalām in the margins of orthodoxy.

Ce livre présente l’édition et la traduction annotée de fragments issus d’un traité de maqālāt d’Abū al-ʿAbbās al-Qalānisī. À la différence d’al-Balḫī et d’al-Ašʿarī, les deux grands auteurs de maqālāt de cette époque, notre auteur n’est ni muʿtazilite ni formé chez les muʿtazilites, mais un «　théologien traditionniste　» de l’école d’Ibn Kullāb. Seuls fragments restants de ce grand théologien, ces maqālāt reflètent sa volonté d’intégrer les milieux sunnites dans les débats théologiques du iii ^e/ix^e s. L’histoire qu’il nous livre des premiers siècles du kalām prend ainsi le contrepied aussi bien de celle des muʿtazilites que de celle des ḥanbalites, pour qui les métiers de théologiens et traditionnistes s’excluent mutuellement. Ainsi, al-Qalānisī participe avec al-Ashʿarī de ce grand mouvement de synthèse qui caractérise le iv^e/x^e s tout en se démarquant fondamentalement de son célèbre contemporain. L’étude qui précède l’édition apporte un nouvel éclairage sur ce dernier représentant du kullābisme qu’était al-Qalānisī – permettant par là d’expliquer les raisons du succès d’al-Ašʿarī, dont l’école reléguera aux marges de l’orthodoxie cette première efflorescence du kalām sunnite.