ABSTRACT
What was happening to theological and philosophical thought throughout these centuries? In volume it probably increased, but its quality is usually held to have declined. One of the signs of this alleged decline is the lack of originality. Instead of fresh works like those of al-Juwaynī and Fakhr-ad-Dīn ar-Rāzī, the chief effort of the theologians seems to have gone into the production of commentaries and super-commentaries and glosses on earlier works. One notable instance of this is The Articles of Belief of an-Nasafī; for this Brockelmann lists about a dozen commentaries, about thirty glosses (on the commentary by at-Taftazānī), and about twenty super-glosses on one of these. These are mainly in Arabic, but an Islamic religious literature was also springing up in Turkish, Persian, Urdu and other languages. There were a few original works being composed, but these were mainly in the form of creeds of varying lengths, probably intended from the first to be material for commentaries. The writing of commentaries was probably encouraged by the fact that it was the normal practice to use a text as the basis for lectures. Such a practice in itself, however, does not rule out originality. The philosopher Immanuel Kant also followed this practice in his lectures, as was customary in Germany at that period, but this did not prevent him producing highly original work. Apart from the use of the commentary-form, then, originality was lacking. 150Gardet and Anawati speak of “rigid conservatism” (conservatisme figé).
