HUM 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Abbasid Caliphate, Al-Ghazali, Ancient Greek Philosophy
Document Summary
Even though these were expansions for resources and wealth, people started converting. Lot more non-arabs than arabs as a result of the expansions. C. 750 - new abbasid dynasty, capital in baghdad (persia) Significant because it is not an arabic empire; it is an islamic empire. Kalam - logos in greek: rational theology ( logic ) Arabic language had to create new words to deal with all this science. Famous for creating a rationally unified islamic theology but was criticized for corrupting islam with foreign (greek) ideas. Thought that philosophers were distorting the koran and the religion more than understanding it. Began as a teacher of kalam, but came to doubt the efficacy of reason in achieving religious certainty. Found certainty through divinely inspired intuition & direct mystical experience -- sufi. The sufi are a mystic group that borrowed ideas from christians. He was skeptical the whole time until he found confidence.
