Books by Rodrigo Adem
Abu Mansur al-Māturīdī (d. 333/945) is the eponym of the Māturīdī school of theology, the school ... more Abu Mansur al-Māturīdī (d. 333/945) is the eponym of the Māturīdī school of theology, the school associated with the Hanafi madhhab which is the largest numerically represented school of jurisprudence in Islam today. The present volume, which is a revised English version of the German original published in 1997, examines his teachings and situates them in the history of kalām.
Part one investigates the development of Hanafi thought in Transoxania before Māturīdī's time.
Part two deals with the other religious groups (in particular the Mu'tazilites) which emerged in this area during his lifetime.
Part three shows how he explained and defended the position of his predecessors; in doing so, he reformed their traditional views, thereby developing his own theology which then became the basis of a new tradition, viz. the Māturīdite school.
Papers by Rodrigo Adem
This article offers a historical study and translation of a text written in Baghdad in the first ... more This article offers a historical study and translation of a text written in Baghdad in the first half of the 5th/11th century known to the Imami Shiʿi scholarly tradition as the K. al-Rijāl by Ibn al-Ghaḍāʾirī, containing some of the earliest extant material from the Imami scholarly practice of ʿilm al-rijāl, and providing key insights into the historical development of hadith scholarship in Imami thought. Ibn al-Ghaḍāʾirī's biographical circumstances provide a particularly useful entry point into Imami hadith scholarship of 5th/11th century Baghdad and the historical circumstances of the authorship of the authoritative textual sources of Imami ʿilm al-rijāl. The remarkable historical achievement of Ibn al-Ghaḍāʾirī's K. al-Rijāl consists in its reemergence from presumed oblivion in the 11th century CE to attaining quasi-canonical status within Imami scholarship over the 13th to 16th centuries CE, and just as rapidly coming under attack by Imami jurists over subsequent centuries into the present day.
Introduction to Reason, Esotericism, and Authority in Shiʿi Islam, co-edited with Edmund Hayes
Brill, Aug 11, 2021
Chapter from Reason, Esotericism, and Authority in Shiʿi Islam, co-edited with Edmund Hayes
This article reexamines the use of the term naṣs, which since Marshall Hodgson has been used in m... more This article reexamines the use of the term naṣs, which since Marshall Hodgson has been used in modern historiography to refer to an indigenous Shīʿī mechanism of succession to the imamate. An alternative thesis is proposed here which situates the origins of the term in Shīʿī usage over the 8th to 11th centuries within the scholarly discourses of kalām and uṣūl al-fiqh. From the perspective of theological hermeneutics, classical Imāmī naṣṣ doctrines valorized revelatory specification (naṣṣ) of authority to the exclusion of opinion and interpretive effort (ijtihād). As is shown here, the elaboration of these doctrines was historically predicated on an attempt to explain the Shīʿī imamate as a solution to the problem of epistemological uncertainty in Islamic scholarship. This is illustrated with reference to Sunnī, Muʿtazilite, Zaydī, Imāmī, and Ismāʿīlī literature, documenting the earliest usage of the term naṣṣ within a broader intellectual milieu than has hitherto been the case.
Book Reviews by Rodrigo Adem
Rocco Rante, Rayy: From its Origins to the Mongol Invasion, 166 pp. + xiv pp., 107 illus., 1 tabl... more Rocco Rante, Rayy: From its Origins to the Mongol Invasion, 166 pp. + xiv pp., 107 illus., 1 table. Leiden: Brill, 2014. ISBN13: 9789004279292, E-ISBN: 9789004280700. This attractive volume, based on the author's 2009 doctoral thesis, presents an archaeological survey of Rayy's urban and material culture on the basis of 2005 and 2007 excavations of that ancient city (now a suburb of Tehran), with special reference to historical and numismatic data. Achieved in cooperation with the Iranian Center of Archaeological Research, and in collaboration with archaeologist Ghadir Afround of Mīrāth-e Ostān-e Tehrān, the �eldwork presented here would not have been possible without the type of international partnership of which we hope to see more in the Muslim world. Though of particular utility to students of Islamic archaeology, this work should not be overlooked by those who would seek a deeper appreciation of the early Islamic settlement of Iran. After a brief chapter on Rayy's geographical bearings, the second chapter familiarizes the reader with the city's political history and course of settlement. A brief nod is given to the settlement's prehistorical past, but the survey begins in earnest with the Parthian establishment of urban foundations still extant, and extends to the Mongol attack of the city in 1222, after which Rayy ceased to be a signi�cant urban center. Of particular interest for most readers is Rayy's period of cultural prosperity under the Buyids (regarding which read Aḍud for Asud, and Muʾayyad for Muʾayyid, p. 22), although the material presented here cannot but reinvigorate an interest in the history of the city under the Umayyads as well, not to mention the period of its subsequent renovation under the Abbasid caliph al-Mahdī (d. 785), whose son and future caliph al-Rashīd was born there. The interested reader may make further use of a convenient appendix at the end of the book containing lists of governors, pertinent Arabic sources, secondary literature, and numismatics from the Umayyad to the Seljuk period. Following a survey of previous archaeological literature on Rayy in Chapter Three, the author presents in Chapter Four the main topographical characteristics of the ancient city; namely, the citadel structure and shahrestān inner-city which delineate the primary locus points of reference for this archaeological study. This prepares the reader for Chapters Five and Six, in which the results of the author's excavations are presented, each chapter being dedicated to the city's construction and ceramic record, respectively. There the composite nature of the city's foundations is described with
Review of Ibadi Theology: Rereading Sources and Scholarly Works. Edited by Ersilia Francesca. Stu... more Review of Ibadi Theology: Rereading Sources and Scholarly Works. Edited by Ersilia Francesca. Studies on Ibadism and Oman, vol. 4. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 2015. Pp. 331. €68.
Teaching Documents by Rodrigo Adem
Class taught 2020 Spring Semester, Georgetown University
A course taught Spring 2016 at UNC Chapel Hill
A course taught at Harvard University in Fall of 2017
Announcements by Rodrigo Adem
with any questions or accommodation requests. A good faith effort will be made for all accomodati... more with any questions or accommodation requests. A good faith effort will be made for all accomodations.
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Books by Rodrigo Adem
Part one investigates the development of Hanafi thought in Transoxania before Māturīdī's time.
Part two deals with the other religious groups (in particular the Mu'tazilites) which emerged in this area during his lifetime.
Part three shows how he explained and defended the position of his predecessors; in doing so, he reformed their traditional views, thereby developing his own theology which then became the basis of a new tradition, viz. the Māturīdite school.
Papers by Rodrigo Adem
Book Reviews by Rodrigo Adem
Teaching Documents by Rodrigo Adem
Announcements by Rodrigo Adem
Part one investigates the development of Hanafi thought in Transoxania before Māturīdī's time.
Part two deals with the other religious groups (in particular the Mu'tazilites) which emerged in this area during his lifetime.
Part three shows how he explained and defended the position of his predecessors; in doing so, he reformed their traditional views, thereby developing his own theology which then became the basis of a new tradition, viz. the Māturīdite school.