The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, and the Alwaleed bin Talal Islamic Studies Program present
Fouad Ben Ahmed
Professor of Islamic Philosophy, Al-Qarawiyyin University - Dar el-Hadith el-Hassania Institute for HIgher Islamic Studies, Rabat, Morrocco; Shawwaf Visiting Professor of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University
This paper interrogates the epistemological frameworks through which the intellectual heritage of Muslim societies has been constructed, with particular attention to the case of lbn Khaldun (d. 808 AH / 1406 CE) and Ibn 'Arafa al-Warghami (d. 803 AH / 1401 CE) in 14th-century Hafsid Tunisia. The analysis foregrounds the enduring impact of Orientalist historiography-exemplified by scholars such as Ernest Renan, Ignaz Goldziher, and Robert Brunschvig-on the conceptualization of Islamic intellectual history, particularly the widely held narrative of an epistemic rupture between rationalist and theological traditions.
These narratives, often embedded within colonial discourses, continue to inform contemporary scholarship, as evidenced in the works of Mohammed Abed al-Jabiri, Sad Ghrab, and 'Abd al-Salam al-Shaddadi, who variously frame the period in terms of intellectual decline, methodological fragmentation, or ideological contestation.
Professor Ben Ahmed's research interests focus on the history of philosophy and rational sciences in Muslim contexts, in particular from the time of al-Ghazali to the post-lbn Rushd period.
Contact: nelc@fas.harvard.edu
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