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" The Memory of the Mihna in a Haunted Time: "
Nadia Mohamed Nader
K. H. R. S. Abou El Fadl
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Latin Dissertation
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English
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| Record Number
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1103859
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| Doc. No
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TLpq871853176
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| Main Entry
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K. H. R. S. Abou El Fadl
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Nadia Mohamed Nader
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| Title & Author
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The Memory of the Mihna in a Haunted Time:\ Nadia Mohamed NaderK. H. R. S. Abou El Fadl
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| College
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University of California, Santa Barbara
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| Date
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2011
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| student score
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2011
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Page No
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252
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| Abstract
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In 218/833, the theological controversy between traditional Hadith-oriented 'Ulama (usually referred to as Sunni Hanbalis) and rationalist theologians (usually referred to as Mu'tazilis) over the createdness of the Qur'an was institutionalized by the 'Abbasid state into an organized procedure known as the Mihna. The Mihna was extensive, in both influence and impact. First, it ended the relative political stability and religious harmony of the era of Harun al-Rashid. Second, it led to killing, imprisoning and alienation of a group of Muslim scholars, who were not political dissenters, because of their theological orientations. Importantly, it also nourished the severe intellectual rift between Muslims scholars, which still characterizes the entire Muslim world today, and has affected all aspects of Muslim life from mundane daily activities to the reform project. In the past century, western scholarship has focused on studying the motives of the 'Abbasid Caliph, al-Ma'mun (813-833), who initiated the process of the Mihna. Legal historians, in particular, have always privileged the Hanbali narrative, ignoring the Hanafis entirely, and to a great extent, other versions of the story. Muslim scholarship, on the other hand, has studied the story of the Mihna as a symbol of a sacrosanct and a static past, especially in the nineteenth century up to the present. In that regard, my dissertation is twofold. I primarily assess what the Mihna meant for other scholars during ninth century Baghdad. Secondarily, my dissertation has a strong ethical component and thus contributes to issues which are highly relevant to contemporary debates over law reform and morality in Islam. My dissertation demonstrates how dogmatic theology impacted the development of Islamic legal institutions and doctrines, and how this development impacted Muslims' normative system of belief and their understanding of the ethical foundation of Islamic law. At the crux of the reform debate is the literal-versus-metaphorical-discussion of the interpretation of the Qur'an. Therefore, understanding the dynamics of the rejection of metaphorical interpretations of the Qur'an and believing in its createdness and its ethical message is urgent to reforming Islamic law and the integration of ethics (and hence Human Rights) into the Islamic legal discourse.
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Dogmatic theology
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Islamic law
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Legal reform
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Neo-Mu'tazilism
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Philosophy, religion and theology
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Social sciences
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