Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Classical Islamic Discourse on the Origins of Language: Cultural Memory and the Defense of Orthodoxy

Classical Islamic Discourse on the Origins of Language: Cultural Memory and the Defense of Orthodoxy © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/156852711X562335 Numen 58 (2011) 314–343 brill.nl/nu Classical Islamic Discourse on the Origins of Language: Cultural Memory and the Defense of Orthodoxy Mustafa Shah School of Oriental and African Studies, London University Russell Square, London WC1H OXG England ms99@soas.ac.uk Abstract Classical Islamic scholarship developed two principal theses on the subject of the ori- gin of language ( as ̣ l al-lugha ). The first of these theses, commonly referred to as tawqīf , accentuated the pre-eminent role that divine agency played in the imposition of lan- guage; axiomatic within this perspective is the view that words ( lafz ̣ pl. alfāz ̣ ) have been assigned their meanings ( ma ʿ nā pl. ma ʿ ānī ) primordially by God. Presented as something of an antithesis to this position, the second doctrine, labeled is ̣ t ̣ ilāh ̣ , predi- cates that language was established and evolved via a process of common convention and agreement: words together with their meanings were assigned by human beings, although both the doctrines of tawqīf and is ̣ t ̣ ilāh ̣ posit that the actual relationship between words and their assigned meanings remains entirely http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Numen Brill

Classical Islamic Discourse on the Origins of Language: Cultural Memory and the Defense of Orthodoxy

Numen , Volume 58 (2-3): 314 – Jan 1, 2011

Loading next page...
 
/lp/brill/classical-islamic-discourse-on-the-origins-of-language-cultural-memory-EVfk3qn2CQ

References (65)

Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2011 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
0029-5973
eISSN
1568-5276
DOI
10.1163/156852711X562335
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2011 DOI: 10.1163/156852711X562335 Numen 58 (2011) 314–343 brill.nl/nu Classical Islamic Discourse on the Origins of Language: Cultural Memory and the Defense of Orthodoxy Mustafa Shah School of Oriental and African Studies, London University Russell Square, London WC1H OXG England ms99@soas.ac.uk Abstract Classical Islamic scholarship developed two principal theses on the subject of the ori- gin of language ( as ̣ l al-lugha ). The first of these theses, commonly referred to as tawqīf , accentuated the pre-eminent role that divine agency played in the imposition of lan- guage; axiomatic within this perspective is the view that words ( lafz ̣ pl. alfāz ̣ ) have been assigned their meanings ( ma ʿ nā pl. ma ʿ ānī ) primordially by God. Presented as something of an antithesis to this position, the second doctrine, labeled is ̣ t ̣ ilāh ̣ , predi- cates that language was established and evolved via a process of common convention and agreement: words together with their meanings were assigned by human beings, although both the doctrines of tawqīf and is ̣ t ̣ ilāh ̣ posit that the actual relationship between words and their assigned meanings remains entirely

Journal

NumenBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2011

Keywords: Mutazilites; Islam; origins of language; orthodoxy; Asharism; Arabic grammarians

There are no references for this article.