ABSTRACT
In early Islamic culture, the theological and philosophical traditions developed largely independently of each other. As the branch of religious thought concerned with the establishment and exposition of doctrine, theology was very much an indigenous discipline guided chiefly by the teachings of scripture, though it was also influenced in various ways by pre-Islamic intellectual trends that were current in the late-antique Near East. Within the theological tradition, there was a broad and diverse spectrum of outlooks ranging from the highly rationalist, whereby faith had to be founded in reason, to the relatively fideistic, according to which faith should rest to some extent on the authority of scripture or some charismatic individuals. Philosophy (falsafa), on the other hand, was the continuation of the ancient philosophical tradition and in essence had no particular religious affiliations. Muslims, Christians, Jews and pagans contributed to the transmission and development of philosophy in medieval Arabic culture.
