Sarah Stroumsa – författare

While the great medieval philosopher, theologian, and physician Maimonides is acknowledged as a leading Jewish thinker, his intellectual contacts with his surrounding world are often described as related primarily to Islamic philosophy. Maimonides in His World challenges this view by revealing him to have wholeheartedly lived, breathed, and espoused the rich Mediterranean culture of his time. Sarah Stroumsa argues that Maimonides is most accurately viewed as a Mediterranean thinker who consistently interpreted his own Jewish tradition in contemporary multicultural terms. Maimonides spent his entire life in the Mediterranean region, and the religious and philosophical traditions that fed his thought were those of the wider world in which he lived. Stroumsa demonstrates that he was deeply influenced not only by Islamic philosophy but by Islamic culture as a whole, evidence of which she finds in his philosophy as well as his correspondence and legal and scientific writings.She begins with a concise biography of Maimonides, then carefully examines key aspects of his thought, including his approach to religion and the complex world of theology and religious ideas he encountered among Jews, Christians, Muslims, and even heretics; his views about science; the immense and unacknowledged impact of the Almohads on his thought; and his vision of human perfection. This insightful cultural biography restores Maimonides to his rightful place among medieval philosophers and affirms his central relevance to the study of medieval Islam.

Freethinkers of Medieval Islam focuses on the express denial of prophecy in the medieval Islamicate world. The development of Islamic freethinking is analyzed against the background of the significance of prophets in Islam. In her book, Sarah Stroumsa examines the image of freethinkers, and the repercussions of freethinking on Muslim, Jewish and Christian medieval thought. She argue that freethinking, as exemplified by figures like Ibn al-Rāwandī (9th C.) and Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (10th C.), was a pivotal phenomenon, that had a major impact on the development of Islamic thought. In the present context of religious violence carried out in the name of Islam, this book highlights the striking existence of independent freethinking in the world of Islam.

This book endeavors to identify and define the phenomenon of freethinking in medieval Islam, in particular as exemplified in the figures of the two most notorious intellectual heretics, Ibn al-Rawandi (9th C.) and Abu Bakr al-Razi (10th C.).The development of Islamic freethinking is analyzed on the background of the paramount importance of prophetology in Islam. The book examines the image of the freethinkers in Islam and its connection to the legacy of late antiquity, and to the traditions about Indian and Sabian religions. The last chapters examine repercussions of his phenomenon in various aspects of Muslim, Jewish and Christian medieval thought.It is argued that, despite its rare occurrence, freethinking was in fact a pivotal Islamic phenomenon, which had a major impact on the development of Islamic thought.

An integrative approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-AndalusAl-Andalus, the Iberian territory ruled by Islam from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, was home to a flourishing philosophical culture among Muslims and the Jews who lived in their midst. Andalusians spoke proudly of the region's excellence, and indeed it engendered celebrated thinkers such as Maimonides and Averroes. Sarah Stroumsa offers an integrative new approach to Jewish and Muslim philosophy in al-Andalus, where the cultural commonality of the Islamicate world allowed scholars from diverse religious backgrounds to engage in the same philosophical pursuits.Stroumsa traces the development of philosophy in Muslim Iberia from its introduction to the region to the diverse forms it took over time, from Aristotelianism and Neoplatonism to rational theology and mystical philosophy. She sheds light on the way the politics of the day, including the struggles with the Christians to the north of the peninsula and the Fāṭimids in North Africa, influenced philosophy in al-Andalus yet affected its development among the two religious communities in different ways.While acknowledging the dissimilar social status of Muslims and members of the religious minorities, Andalus and Sefarad highlights the common ground that united philosophers, providing new perspective on the development of philosophy in Islamic Spain.