Development of Muslim Theology: Appendix II: Bibliography: IV. On Muslim Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism

This is an annotated scholarly bibliography, compiled in the early twentieth century, listing European academic works on Islamic religious thought published roughly between 1844 and 1902. It covers Islamic theology, philosophy, mysticism (Sufism), religious sects, and eschatology, with entries in German, French, and English reflecting the dominance of German-language Orientalist scholarship in this period. The list moves systematically through major topics and figures — early sectarian movements (Mu'tazilites, Ash'arites), philosophers (al-Farabi, Ibn Sina, al-Ghazali, Averroes, Ibn Khaldun), Sufi poets (Rumi, Omar Khayyam, Abu-l-Ala al-Ma'arri), and later movements such as the Almohads and Wahhabites. Brief critical annotations distinguish the entries: de Boer's history of Islamic philosophy is dismissed as "unsatisfactory but the best that there is," Sell's survey is flagged as polemical due to its missionary standpoint, and Spitta's work on al-Ash'ari is recommended "with caution." The compiler (likely Duncan Black Macdonald, who cites his own articles under that name) is evidently a Western academic surveying the field for students or researchers, prioritizing Arabic-language sources and rigorous philological work over popular or confessional treatments. It is useful as a snapshot of what serious Western scholarship on Islam had produced by 1902, and as a guide to which foundational texts were then considered authoritative, flawed, or indispensable.

Development of Muslim Theology: Appendix II: Bibliography: IV. On Muslim Theology, Philosophy and Mysticism

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