The Formative Period of Islamic Thought

by William Montgomery Watt

A clear picture of the main lines of philosophical development from the death of Muhammad in 632, to 950.

Genres: Islam, Religion, History, Philosophy, Nonfiction

442 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1973

About the author

William Montgomery Watt was a Scottish historian, an Emeritus Professor in Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Watt was one of the foremost non-Muslim interpreters of Islam in the West, was an enormously influential scholar in the field of Islamic studies and a much-revered name for many Muslims all over the world." Watt's comprehensive biography of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad, Muhammad at Mecca (1953) and Muhammad at Medina (1956), are considered to be classics in the field .

Watt held visiting professorships at the University of Toronto, the Collège de France, and Georgetown University, and received the American Giorgio Levi Della Vida Medal and won, as its first recipient, the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies award for outstanding scholarship.

Reviews

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent overview of early Islamic theology (which is really all that it covers, despite the more inclusive "thought" of the title). The publishers play up the value of this book as an introductory text, and I agree that it wouldn't be baffling to someone new to the topic; however, I don't feel that the information would really sink in unless you had some prior knowledge. Despite the textbook format, this is also an important piece of scholarship, as Watt definitely advances his own theories rather than simply reporting different views on each topic. He is sensitive to traditional Islamic historiography while falling squarely into the Goldziher/Schacht camp. Occasionally his analysis goes off course into some "Maybe they think this way because they're Arabs and they live in the desert" nonsense, but for the most part Watt has a balanced and transparent historical method. The book is getting a bit old; for either an undergraduate class or one's personal reading, I'd supplement this with the textbooks by Marshall Hodgson (also old), Patricia Crone, and Jonathan Berkey on classical Islamicate history and thought. The Flowering of Muslim Theology by Josef van Ess is a solid, quick read before tackling Watt.

[Mehmet Dönmez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yani bana çok ağır ve çok uzun sürdü bitirmem. Esas merak ettiğim Eşari Mutezile çekişmesi biraz sona yığılmış ve apar topar bahsedilmiş gibi niyeyse özellikle ilk kısımları keşke daha hızlı geçseydim okumadan diye düşünüyorum, sıra sıra isimler bir literatür etkisi veriyor…

Ama gene de, ıstıtıa, kesp gibi kavramlar, “Kuran yaratılmış mıdır?” “Seçim eylemden önce mi gelir?” “Hangi ayet muhkem, hangisi müteşabihtir?” gibi varoluşsal sorular üzerine düşünüp yaşanan kafa karışıklığı beni 18 sene önce, Hilmi Yavuz’un ders verdiği o soğuk TB binasına götürdü. O zamanlara duyulan özlemin dinmesi mümkün değil :)

[Amal]

p. 9

[Esra Erdoğan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best book on the History of Islamic Sects I have ever read.