Muslim Intellectual and Social History

This volume of articles by Professor Rosenthal is the first of three to be published by Variorum; the following two will deal with the Greek heritage in Islam, in the fields of philosophy, science and medicine. The present articles, now provided with a section of additional notes, offer a series of penetrating insights into the nature of medieval Islamic civilisation, into Muslim views on concerns that have been common to all civilised societies. The first section looks at the survival...
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This volume of articles by Professor Rosenthal is the first of three to be published by Variorum; the following two will deal with the Greek heritage in Islam, in the fields of philosophy, science and medicine. The present articles, now provided with a section of additional notes, offer a series of penetrating insights into the nature of medieval Islamic civilisation, into Muslim views on concerns that have been common to all civilised societies. The first section looks at the survival and influence of pre-Islamic traditions, in areas such as numerical speculation or other-identification; subsequent articles, dealing with intellectual history, examine the lasting problem of the relations between religion and state, of the attitude towards non-believers and Muslim perspectives on man's view of himself and others. The final articles turn to social history, and to the Muslim views on love, death, sex, bribery or childhood. In each case, Professor Rosenthal's aim has been to go direct to the sources and, insofar as is possible, to let them speak for themselves.Cette collection d'articles du professor Rosenthal appartient au premier de trois receuils à étre publies par les éditionsVariorum; les deux autres traiteront de l'heritage grec en Islam dans les domaines de la philosophie, de la science et de la médicine. Les articles dont il est ici question, pourvus à présent d'une section de notes suplémentaires, apportent quantité d'aperçus pénétrants quant à la nature de la civilisation islamique au Moyen Age et quant a la pensee musulmane sur quantite de sujets communs à toutes sociétés civilisées. La premiere partie examine l'emprise et la survie des traditions pre-islamiques dans des domaines, tels la spéculation numerique et l'historiographique. Les article suivants traitent de sujets relatifs à l'histoire intellectuelle et l'état et al religion, de l'attitude à adopter vis-à-vis des non-croyants et de la perspective musulmane en ce qui concerne l'opinion que se fait l'étre humain de lui-même et des autres. Les derniers articles du recueil ont trait a l'histoire sociale et aux vues musulmanes sur l'amour , le suicide, l'acte sexuel, la corruption ou encore l'enfance. Dans chacun des cas, le professeur Rosenthal a tenu a se referer directement aux sources et, dans la mesure du possible, à laisser parler d'elles-mêmes.