Arguing the Archive

Taha 'Abd al-Rahman, Muhammad 'Abid al-Jabiri, and the Future of Islamic Thought

Authors

  • Samuel Kigar Duke University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.30824

Keywords:

Contemporary Islamic thought, Islamic philosophy, Morocco, Muslim intellectual history, New Muslim intellectuals

Abstract

This article analyzes an argument between the Moroccan philosophers, Taha 'Abd al-Rahman (b. 1944) and Muhammad 'Abid al-Jabiri (1936 – 2010). In the 1990s, 'Abd al-Rahman claimed that al-Jabiri had misread Islamic intellectual history by failing to grasp its connection to the Arab-Muslim community. After showing that the differences between 'Abd al-Rahman and al-Jabiri cannot be reduced to differences in European philosophy, this article proposes that a theory of the archive better conceptualizes their differences than MacIntyre’s notion of “tradition,” a common theoretical posture in Islamic studies. The archive, as elaborated by Jacques Derrida (to whom these thinkers are also compared), emphasizes the importance of difference, or an encounter with alterity, and repetition to Muslim intellectual history. The significance of these themes is demonstrated by showing how 'Abd al-Rahman and al-Jabiri read the debate between Matta ibn Yunus (d. 940) and Abu al-Hasan al-Sirafi (d. 979) on grammar and logic.

Author Biography

  • Samuel Kigar, Duke University
    Samuel Kigar is a doctoral candidate in the Graduate Program in Religion at Duke University.

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Published

2017-09-06

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Kigar, S. (2017). Arguing the Archive: Taha ’Abd al-Rahman, Muhammad ’Abid al-Jabiri, and the Future of Islamic Thought. Comparative Islamic Studies, 11(1), 5-33. https://doi.org/10.1558/cis.30824