Archetypal Sunnī Scholar

Aaron Spevack is Assistant Professor of Religion at Colgate University. He translated and annotated Ghazali on the Principles of Islamic Spirituality: Selections from The Forty Foundations of Religion—Annotated and Explained.

"Reading against the Orientalist model of Islamic intellectual tradition, which was preoccupied with the notions of independence, creativity and progress, this book offers an alternative approach to nineteenth-century Islamic scholarship, focusing on the normative or ideal platform that Muslim scholars like al- Bājūrī wished to preserve. The book also serves as a reminder … that the categorical devaluation of postclassical Islamic scholarship produced by early Orientalist scholars and Muslim reformists alike, does not adequately reflect the Islamic legal, theological, and mystical tradition. A more sympathetic reading of nineteenth-century Islamic scholarship, such as Spevack's, may perhaps open up multiple trajectories of Islamic tradition that will give us a better understanding of the Islamic world today." — Islamic Law and Society"Spevack's trailblazing book is a lucid survey and deep analysis of the works and ideas of al-Bājūrī. Spevack shows precisely how al-Bājūrī served as an 'archetypal' Sunnī scholar. In the process, he succeeds in evoking the subtlety, sophistication, and dynamism of the postclassical Islamic traditions of theology, mysticism, and jurisprudence." — Robert Wisnovsky, McGill University"Here is a readable and comprehensive introduction to the intellectual production of one of the last giants of the Sunnī legal tradition in the nineteenth century. Sensitive to the scholar's strong affiliation with a millennium-long tradition, this introduction will be appreciated by seasoned scholars and newcomers alike." — Ahmad Atif Ahmad, University of California, Santa Barbara"Spevack's book is an important corrective to Eurocentric narratives of the nineteenth century that focus solely on Islamic thinkers whose main concern is with European 'modernity' and its challenges while breezily ignoring the continuing tradition of madrasah scholarship in the modern period." — Khaled El-Rouayheb, Harvard University

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Al-Bājūrī’s Life and ScholarshipA Traditional Shaykh al-Azhar in an Era of Attempted ReformAl-Bājūrī’s CharacterAl-Bājūrī’s WorksAl-Bājūrī’s Commentaries and Their PredecessorsAl-Bājūrī’s Literary Sources and the Commentary Tradition2. Al-Bājūrī’s View of Religion and Method in the Egyptian MilieuThe Archetype and MethodThe Gabrielian Paradigm: Al-Bājūrī’s View of the Three Dimensions of IslamThe Ijmā’-Ikhtilāf SpectrumThe Egyptian Milieu3. Al-Bājūrī in Dialogue with His Archetypal PredecessorsAl-Bājūrī’s Theological PredecessorsAl-Bājūrī’s Predecessors in LawAl-Bājūrī’s Sufi PredecessorsThe Independent Jurist-Theologian-Sufis and Their Affiliations4. Al-Bājūrī’s Legal, Theological, and Mystical ThoughtAl-Bājūrī on Law: Ijtihād and TaqlīdAl-Bājūrī on Sufism: Its Goals, Methods, and Explanations or ExclamationsAl-Bājūrī on the Rational Sciences5. Legacy and ConclusionAl-Bājūrī’s LegacyConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex