Classical Islamic Theology

This book is the last in a three-volume series of collected studies by Richard M. Frank, who died a few years ago after a long and most distinguished career in the study of early kalam, both Mu[tazili and Ash[ari. After two earlier volumes entitled Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism in Medieval Islam and Early Islamic Theology: The Mu[tazilites and al-Ash[aris, this third volume comes to include studies on the classical Ash[ari school. Studies concentrating solely on the eponymous school-founder, Abu’l-Hasan al-Ash[ari, are collected in the second volume. Two articles in this third volume, however, deal with the Mu[tazilah, namely IV, ‘Can God do What is Wrong?’ (1985), and XIII, ‘The Autonomy of the Human Agent in the Teaching of [Abd al-Gabbar’ (1982). Furthermore, the first volume, Philosophy, Theology and Mysticism, contains two further articles relating to early Ash[arism, namely ‘Two Short Dogmatic Works of Abu’l-Qasim al-Qushayri’, Parts 1 and 2 (1982–1983).