Classification of Knowledge in Islam

Description

Classification of Knowledge in Islam by Osman Bakar is a study of how three major Muslim thinkers organized human knowledge. They are al-Fārābī (870–950), al-Ghazālī (1058–1111) and Quṭb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (1236–1311). Each represents a major intellectual school: the Peripatetic, the theologian-Sufi and the Illuminationist. For each thinker the book gives a biography and an account of his works. It then examines the philosophical, psychological, ontological and ethical foundations of his classification of the sciences. It covers the religious and intellectual sciences, the theoretical and practical divisions, and al-Ghazālī's classification of the seekers after knowledge. A concluding chapter compares the three classifications. The foreword by Seyyed Hossein Nasr places the work within the current debate on the Islamization of knowledge. The book is described as the first of its kind in English. It suits scholars and students of Islamic philosophy, the history and philosophy of science, and Islamic education. It has a selected bibliography.