Abū ʿĪsā al-Warrāq and
Early Islamic Religious Thought
Abstract: Some of the most vigorous developments in Islamic thought took place in the ninth century, when cities such as Baghdad and Baṣra reached unprecedented heights of cultural sophistication. Insufficient knowledge of the ideas and views that circulated among intellectuals at this time is the result of most their works having been lost. A figure who is less anonymous than most is Abū ʿĪsā al-Warrāq. He emerges as a man who possibly preferred asking questions rather than finding answers. Study of his works reveal an individual, and a society, that appreciated a degree of openness in matters of belief that has rarely been rivalled in the Islamic world since.
David Thomas is professor of Christianity and Islam at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. An alumnus of Oxford, Cambridge and Lancaster Universities, he specializes in the study of Islam and Christian-Muslim relations. He is editor of the journal Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, and currently heads Christian-Muslim Relations, a bibliographical history, a project which is compiling information about the known works by Christians and Muslims about and against one another in the period 600-1914.