05/05/2026
CTPR research seminar this Wednesday (tomorrow), 3 - 5 pm: Badreldeen Ismail (The Classical Institute, Birmingham), “An Eleventh-Century Muslim Theologian on God’s Attributes and Human Agency: Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi’s al-Ishara.” Dr Ismail will be speaking with us by video link due to his unexpected circumstances. Come join us in Humanities A1 for the event or online (email [email protected] for the link).
Abstract
Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī (d. 476/1083) is renowned as a towering medieval jurist, yet he is less well-known for authoring works in Islamic philosophical theology (kalām), the most substantive of which is the hitherto understudied al-Ishāra ilā madhhab ahl al-ḥaqq (“Indication toward the Doctrine of the People of Truth”). Aside from a limited number of largely Francophone studies engaging with al-Shīrāzī in the late twentieth century, both al-Shīrāzī and al-Ishāra remain relatively unknown in Western academia. This seminar analyses the standpoint of al-Ishāra on a number of topics that function as litmus tests for theological affiliation. It situates the text against the backdrop of al-Shīrāzī’s intellectual milieu in fifth/eleventh century Baghdad — an environment in which factional rivals jostled for the custodianship of Islamic orthodoxy — before discussing his responses to a number of enduring philosophical topics: God’s attributes, with particular attention to divine speech and the ontological status of its material manifestations in recitation and writing; the grounding of normativity and the relationship between reason and revelation in determining moral obligation; human agency and responsibility under comprehensive divine omnipotence, especially through the distinction between divine command and divine will; and the epistemology of belief, including what counts as theological knowledge and the place of rational inquiry. Through a series of excerpts showcasing al-Shīrāzī’s position on these debates, the seminar will also bring al-Ishāra’s distinctive argumentative methodology to light. In contrast to some of the era’s more highly systematised theological treatises, he advances a notably practical vein of theological reasoning, deploying dialectical argumentation that draws upon his legal and linguistic expertise to clarify theological perspectives.
