Classification of Knowledge in Islam: A Study in Islamic Philosophies of Science

The classification of knowledge is a recurring theme in Islamic scholarship. Successive generations of Muslim scholars, from al—Kindi in the ninth century to Shah Waliallah of Delhi in the eighteenth century, have devoted considerable efforts to the exposition of this theme.

The lives and the ideas of the three thinkers discussed in Classification of Knowledge in Islam—al—Farabi (870—950AD), al—Ghazali (1058—1111AD) and Qutb al—Din al—Shirazi (1236—1311AD)—cover the pivotal period of Islamic...