A Medieval Critique of Anthropomorphism

This study consists of a critical edition of Ibn al-Jawzi?s Kitab Akhbar as-Sifat (KAS) along with an annotated translation and introduction. KAS is a critique of anthropomorphic conceptions of God, directed in the first instance against Ibn al-Jawzi?s fellow Hanbali, but also against Sunni traditionalists more generally. As an intra-Hanbalir polemic, KAS sheds important new light on the intellectual fault-lines within medieval Hanbalism, and reveals the extent to which kalam had penetrated the Hanbalite school by the 12th century. In his work, Ibn al- Jawzi?s makes extensive use of kalam, drawing on its technical language and crafting his arguments against anthropomorphism on the basis of the dialectical methods developed within the great theological schools of medieval Islam. The study also contains a translation of al-cAlthi's Risala, a pointed response to Ibn al-Jawzi, written by a fellow Hanbali from a traditionalist perspective.