Introduction to the Islamic Sciences
An orientation to the traditional Islamic sciences and how they interrelate
This course prepares students for the close reading of classical texts across the program. It maps the traditional sciences (creed, law, legal theory, spirituality, hadith, Qur'anic exegesis, and the Arabic language sciences), shows how they were transmitted through chains of teachers, and uses the life and works of the 18th-century Azhari scholar Ahmad al-Dardir as a case study in how the tradition preserved and renewed itself before the modern period.
Lectures
Course texts
Start here: essential outside resources
The freely downloadable doctoral thesis from which the assigned book was developed, with the same five-chapter structure. Direct PDF: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/ndownloader/files/56750843
The instructor introduces the three core disciplines (creed, law, spirituality and ethics) and how they fit together; the closest free video analogue to this course's orientation.
Free 14-page English rendering of al-Dardir's 71-line creedal poem, the standard Azhari primer discussed in the book.
Free 12-lesson course explaining al-Dardir's Kharida line by line, with downloadable English translation, Arabic text, and commentaries.
Beginner map of the Islamic sciences organized by their methodological foundations, and why qualified scholarly disagreement exists.
Classic essay explaining why the schools of law exist and the roles of ijtihad and taqlid; directly relevant to al-Dardir's Maliki work.
Explains tasawwuf as one of the sacred-law sciences alongside fiqh and creed; background for the book's chapter on al-Dardir's synthesis.
Key Maliki-focused article explaining why post-classical jurists adopted taqlid and the synopsis genre; essential context for Khalil's Mukhtasar and al-Dardir's commentaries.