Religious Dogmas and the Synthesis of Early Arabic Linguistic Thought

This important study demonstrates that the key linguistic constructs and concepts developed during the early Islamic period when Arabic linguistic sciences achieved exceptional sophistication were not restrained by the strictures of religious dogma, as has been commonly thought. To the contrary, the work of early Arab grammarians and philologists often impinged upon the boundaries defined by religious orthodoxy and dogma. Beginning with the Basran and Kufan traditions, Shah reconsiders the perception of lingua sacra, issues of Qur'anic Exegesis, the concept of the revelationist theory of language and its conventionalist antithesis, and the Hermeneutics of Metaphor in light of the new findings. This title includes appendices, glossary, bibliography and index.