Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī (d. 933/944), is widely known as the eponym of one of the major schools of Sunnī philosophical theology, and a notable figure of Samarkand’s Islamic heritage. His scholarly corpus, which has only recently received a wider circulation, remains a rich yet unexplored historical document of early Islamic thought in its formative period beyond the central domains of the Abbasid caliphate. Al-Māturīdī’s reception of Ismaili thought is of a uniquely extensive nature, and addresses topics as far-reaching as metaphysics, theology, prophetology, and Shīʿi hermeneutics. This lecture presents an extensive survey of the material contained in this corpus and offers a speculative thesis about what al-Māturīdī might convey to us about the content and methods of the early Ismaili daʿwa in Central Asia.
Speakers
Rodrigo Adem
Assistant Professor
Rodrigo Adem, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at Georgetown University. He works on pre-modern Islamic intellectual history and regional histories and identities of the Middle East.
Aslisho Qurboniev
Research Associate
Dr Aslisho Qurboniev is a historian of the premodern Islamic world, with a focus on scholarly communities, knowledge production and transmission in Arabic and Persian, especially during the Fatimid period (909-1171). He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge (2015-2019) with a thesis entitled ‘Traditions of Learning in Faṭimid Ifriqiya (296–362/909–973): Networks, Practices, and Institutions’.
Hosted by the Institute of Ismaili Studies (London) and convened by Dr Orkhan Mir-Kasimov, the Islamic History and Thought Lecture Series is designed to invite scholars of various international academic institutions, specialising in intellectual, social and political aspects of medieval and early modern Islamic societies, to present and discuss their research.
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Views expressed in this lecture are those of the presenting scholars, not necessarily of IIS, the Ismaili community or leadership. Promotion of this lecture is not an explicit endorsement of the ideas presented.
Cover photo: “A Wealthy Arab”, from the wall of Devashtich’s palace dated to the 7th Century CE, Panjakent (modern-day Tajikistan). Public Domain. Background added digitally.
