The Dialectical Forge

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

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2. The Current Project

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 1-18

3. Evolutionary Narratives

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 19-45

4. The Subject-Text and Its Genre

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 47-84

5. The Full-System Jadal Theory of the Lens-Texts

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 85-216

6. Extended Dialectical Sequences

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 217-377

7. Short Dialectical Sequences and Independent Dialectical Formulae

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 379-433

8. A Picture of Proto-System Jadal

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 435-489

9. Uṣūl al-Fiqh and Jadal-Theory in the Dialectical Forge

   • Walter Edward Young

   Pages 491-553

10. Supplementary Paradigms and Open Doors

    • Walter Edward Young

    Pages 555-563

11. Back Matter

    Pages 565-643

    PDF

The Dialectical Forge identifies dialectical disputation (jadal) as a primary formative dynamic in the evolution of pre-modern Islamic legal systems, promoting dialectic from relative obscurity to a more appropriate position at the forefront of Islamic legal studies. The author introduces and develops a dialectics-based analytical method for the study of pre-modern Islamic legal argumentation, examines parallels and divergences between Aristotelian dialectic and early juridical jadal-theory, and proposes a multi-component paradigm—the Dialectical Forge Model—to account for the power of jadal in shaping Islamic law and legal theory.In addition to overviews of current evolutionary narratives for Islamic legal theory and dialectic, and expositions on key texts, this work shines an analytical light upon the considerably sophisticated “proto-system” of juridical dialectical teaching and practice evident in Islam’s second century, severalgenerations before the first “full-system” treatises of legal and dialectical theory were composed. This proto-system is revealed from analyses of dialectical sequences in the 2^nd/8^th century Kitāb Ikhtilāf al-ʿIrāqiyyīn / ʿIrāqiyyayn (the “subject-text”) through a lens molded from 5^th/11^th century jadal-theory treatises (the “lens-texts”). Specific features thus uncovered inform the elaboration of a Dialectical Forge Model, whose more general components and functions are explored in closing chapters.

• Aristotelian Dialectic
• Dialectical Forge Theory
• Islamic Dialectical Theory (Jadal / Munāẓara)
• Islamic Legal Theory (Uṣūl al-Fiqh)
• Legal Argumentation Theory
• al-Shāfiʿī, Muḥammad b. Idrīs

“Young’s monograph is invaluable for understanding the emergence of dialectics in Islamic thought and for appreciating the role that dialectics played in the formation of Islamic law. It provides a rare example of the effective use of debates on individual points of Islamic law … . the book also constitutes an excellent pedagogical resource: with its parallel text, translation, and analytic discussion, it offers an ideal way for students to learn to decipher such complex discussions.” (Ahmed El Shamsy, Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 141 (3), 2021)

• Alexander von Humboldt Kolleg for Islamicate Intellectual History, Universität Bonn, Bonn, Germany

  Walter Edward Young

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