How the Human Arrived in Islam and Then Disappeared

From Athens to Baghdad

Houari Touati (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

552 Seiten

2026
Brill (Verlag)
978-90-04-70043-7 (ISBN)

Noch nicht erschienen (ca. Februar 2026)
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This book argues that while the concept of the human being was a Greek invention, its reinvention was Arab before it was European. Born in Greece in the fourth century BCE, this concept of the human being disappeared at the end of Late Antiquity, before reappearing in the Abbasid Near East. It was Muslim rationalist theologians who revived it in their theodicy of a just God who can only be just by recognizing the agency of human beings in their voluntary acts. Later, Arabic-speaking philosophers gave it a space of its own under the name of ‘human sciences,’ in the 9th century. But a traditional theology got the better of it. Its reappearance had to wait for the European Renaissance, while retaining its Arab origins.

Houari Touati is a professor at EHESS, Paris. He is editor of Studia Islamica and a member of the Academy of Europe. He is the author of numerous books, some of which have been translated into English, Italian, Turkish and Albanian. Gwendolin Goldbloom read Islamic Studies and English at Hamburg University. She has translated several books and numerous articles in the fields of Islamic Studies and the intellectual and political history of both Europe and the Middle East.

Erscheint lt. Verlag	19.2.2026
Reihe/Serie	Handbook of Oriental Studies. Section 1 The Near and Middle East ; 195
Übersetzer	Gwendolin Goldbloom
Verlagsort	Leiden
Sprache	englisch
Maße	155 x 235 mm
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Philosophie ► Östliche Philosophie
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Islam
ISBN-10	90-04-70043-9 / 9004700439
ISBN-13	978-90-04-70043-7 / 9789004700437
Zustand	Neuware