The Construction of Knowledge in Islamic Civilization
Subtitle: Qudama B. Ja'Far and His Kitab Al-Kharaj Wa-Sina'at Al-Kitaba (Islamic History and Civilization)
Publisher: Brill Academic Publishers
Published: February 2002
Language: eng; ara
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 283
ISBN-13: 9789004123403
Subjects: History of ideas, intellectual history; Islam; Islamic & Arabic philosophy; Islamic studies; c 500 CE to c 1000 CE; History; Foreign Language - Dictionaries / Phrase Books; History: World; Religion; Islamic countries; General; Interior Design - General; Middle East - General; Classification; Encyclopedias and dictionaries; Encyclopedias and dictionaries, Arabic; Islam and state; Kitab al-kharaj; Qudamah ibn Jafar,; To 1500; d. 922?
Description: "This study examines the role of the state in the construction of knowledge in Islamic civilization in its early classical period (third/ninth and fourth/tenth centuries). Different voices representing different social groups - savants, litterateurs, religious scholars, state officials - all brought their particular conception of knowledge to bear on the formation of the various branches of knowledge known to Islamic civilization. Reading the works of various branches of knowledge alongside the administrative encyclopedia of Qudama b. Ja'far (d.337/948), a state official in the employ of the Abbasid dynasty, has served to highlight the particular point of view of the state in the intellectual and cultural dialogue of the day.

This study examines the role of the state in the construction of knowledge in Islamic civilization in its early classical period (3rd/9th and 4th/10th centuries). Different voices representing different social groups - savants, litterateurs, religious scholars, state officials - all brought their particular conception of knowledge to bear on the formation of the various branches of knowledge known to Islamic civilization. Reading the works of various branches of knowledge alongside the administrative encyclopaedia of Qudama b. Ja'far (died 337/948), a state official in the employ of the Abbasid dynasty, serves to highlight the particular point of view of the state in the intellectual and cultural dialogue of the day. At the same time, this approach has shown Islamic civilization to be as much a dialogue of values between the different social groups of the day as a series of events or collection of ideas."--Jacket.