The theory of knowledge in Sharh al-'Aqa'id and its supercommentaries

This study analyses al-Taftāzānī's commentary "Sharḥ al-'Aqa'id" on 'Umar al-Nasafī's abridged treatise on al-'Aqīd, and the supercommentaries (ḥāshiyas) written on al- Taftāzānī's commentary by Hayālī, Siyālkūṭī, Kestalī, Ramadan Efendi, Isām al-Dīn, Aqirmānī and Farhārī. The thesis aims to show that this commentary and supercommentary literature presented a vibrant scholarly life and that there was an ecole adopted and defended the data of classical theology in this period because writing of these commentaries and supercommentaries coincided with the period when philosophy and theology combined. The study consists of two chapters with an introduction. The first chapter introduces the studies on Sharh al-Aqa'id and its authors. That illustrates the publishers and dates of the printed editions of Sharh al-'Aqa'id's translations, source tracings (takh̲rīj), commentaries, supercommentaries; and the libraries housed the unpublished manuscript versions. The second chapter discusses the definition, possibility and sources of knowledge in these commentaries and supercommentaries. The section on the definition of knowledge presents the definitions of knowledge made in the tradition and examines the interpretations made by the supercommentators. The basic arguments of the sophists on the possibility of knowledge were discussed and the objections of the commentators and supercommentators were illustrated. The section on the sources of knowledge expresses different interpretations of the internal and external senses, the news of the prophet and the intellect.