Abu 'Isa al-Warraq and Early Islamic Religious Thought

The Center for Religious Studies&The Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies 
invite you to a Special Lecture by 

David Thomas
(University of Birmingham)

Abū ʿĪsā al-Warrāq and Early Islamic Religious Thought

Thursday, December 3, 2015
5:30 PM

CEU, Nador 9
Popper Room
Reception to follow

Abstract: Some of the most vigorous developments in Islamic thought took place in the ninth century, when cities such as Baghdad and Baṣra reached unprecedented heights of cultural sophistication. Insufficient knowledge of the ideas and views that circulated among intellectuals at this time is the result of most their works having been lost. A figure who is less anonymous than most is Abū ʿĪsā al-Warrāq. He emerges as a man who possibly preferred asking questions rather than finding answers. Study of his works reveal an individual, and a society, that appreciated a degree of openness in matters of belief that has rarely been rivalled in the Islamic world since.

David Thomas is professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. An alumnus of Oxford, Cambridge and Lancaster Universities, he specializes in the study of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations. He is editor of the journal Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, and currently heads Christian-Muslim Relations, a bibliographical history, a project which is compiling information about the known works by Christians and Muslims about and against one another in the period 600-1914.