HIST4150 Lecture : Islam Notes_2.docx
11 Mar 2014
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Learning based on coping books and notes down word for word. (period of the sunni synthesis: al-ghazali- wrote an autobiography of his thought process. A philosopher who up and left teaching one day and traveled as a sufi. Looks at the different types of teaching/learning/knowing god: authoritative teaching- obeying everything a teacher tells you, blindly follow instruction (ishmilis and their imams). Only know god to the point which your teacher did: philosophy- better, but uses only basic logic, which can lead you astray from islamic truth. Does not lead you to moral conclusions: kalam theology- you end up with watered down philosophy and theology. A bit intellectually dishonest, bending things to make them fit: sufism- knowing god through your own experience, feeling, and emotion, sufism- sufi orders organized around the shaykh and disciple relationship. Shaykhs were the leaders of the seljuqs (charismatic type of leadership): tariqa. Byzantine emperor asked pope for mercenaries to defeat the seljuqs.
