The old women seem to open, rather than foreclose, interpretation. People.” Each of these formulations has its own emphasis and defines the expressionĭifferently. Old women,” and Talal Asad mentions the “unthinking religiosity of everyday “beliefs of the old women of Nishapur” while al-Ghazali cites “the religion of Reproduced here the referent shifts: al-Juwayni reportedly referred to the

Readers will notice that even in the texts The expression’s various sources contribute Other sources and other accounts of old women, drawing attention to their manyĪppearances across multiple texts. For this reason, some forum contributors refer to Passages do not mark the origins of the expression nor are they the most significantĬomments about the old women. The last section below includes two passages written by the anthropologist Talal Asad. 1111) Iḥyā’ ʿulūm al-dīn ( The Revival of the Religious Sciences), in which he prescribes the religion of the old women to people who lack scholarly abilities. 1085) embrace of “the dīn of the old women.” We then quote a passage from al-Ghazali’s (d. 1328) recounting the deathbed declaration of al-Juwayni’s (d. We first present two accounts written by Ibn Taymiyya (d. Each text is prefaced by a brief introduction to the thinker. To give readers the ability to read and interpret these texts directly, we include them here in English along with links to the original Arabic texts where relevant.

Several texts prompted the forum on the religion of the old women of Nishapur. W.Translations from Arabic and bibliographical research by Shahrouz Khanjar introductory notes by Katherine Lemons and Setrag Manoukian. Montgomery Watt, Muslim Intellectual: A Study of al-Ghazali (Edinburgh University Press, 1963) Margaret Smith, Al-Ghazali, The Mystic: A Study of the Life and Personality of Abu Hamid Muhammad Al-Tusi Al-Ghazali, (Luzac & Co, 1944) Shehadi, Ghazali’s Unique Unknowable God (E. Parviz Morewedge (ed.), Islamic Philosophy and Mysticism (Caravan Books, 1981)Įric Ormsby, Ghazali: The Revival of Islam (Oneworld Publications, 2007)į. Marmura, Probing in Islamic Philosophy: Studies In The Philosophies Of Ibn Sina (Global Academic Publishing, 2004) Sebastian Gunther (ed.), Ideas, Images, and Methods of Portrayal: Insights into Classical Arabic Literature and Islam (Brill, 2005) Frank, Al-Ghazali and the Ash‘arite School (Duke University Press, 1994)įrank Griffel, Al-Ghazali’s Philosophical Theology (Oxford University Press, 2012) Frank, Creation and the Cosmic System: Al-Ghazali and Avicenna (C. McCarthy), Freedom and Fulfillment: An annotated translation of Al-Ghazali al-Munqidh min al-Dalāl and other relevant works of Al-Ghazali (Twayne Publishers, 1980) Marmura), The Incoherence of the Philosophers (Brigham Young University, 2002)Īl-Ghazali (trans. Robert Gleave at the University of ExeterĪl-Ghazali – Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyĪl-Ghazali (trans. Carole Hillenbrand at the University of St Andrews

Al ghazali