Excursus II: Ungodly Cosmologies

This article examines the cosmological theories of the so-called Dahrīs and Zindīqs from their pre-Islamic roots until the fourth/tenth century, when they and their Muʿtazilite opponents ceased to be the predominant exponents of what we call natural science. Both Dahrīs and Zindīqs were empiricists,...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Crone, Patricia 1945-2015 (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Oxford University Press 2014
In: The Oxford handbook of Islamic theology
Year: 2014
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:This article examines the cosmological theories of the so-called Dahrīs and Zindīqs from their pre-Islamic roots until the fourth/tenth century, when they and their Muʿtazilite opponents ceased to be the predominant exponents of what we call natural science. Both Dahrīs and Zindīqs were empiricists, some in a dogmatist and others in a sceptical vein; both drew on ideas of pre-Islamic Greek and Iranian origin; and both left a deep imprint on the cosmology and epistemology of the Muʿtazilites (to whom we owe practically all our knowledge about them). Their beliefs can be followed well past the fourth/tenth century, but henceforth it was mostly as components of philosophy and (at least in post-Mongol Iran) of Sufism that they attracted attention.
ISBN:0199696705
Contains:Enthalten in: The Oxford handbook of Islamic theology
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.013.006