This three-year project will be exploring cultures of rationality in the medieval and early modern Islamic West (that is, al-Andalus and North Africa). We will be examining the doctrinal history of Maghribi and Andalusian Ashʿarism from a longue-durée perspective. Historically, Ashʿarism is the most important strand of kalām (rational theology) in Sunni Islam, and it still has a huge following and influential role in modern Morocco.
The project seeks to address the overall issue of how theologians view the relation between reason and religious...