On Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's Life and the Patronage He Received

Abstract

Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) was one of the most important proponents of the rationalist wing of Ashʿarism, which responded to the tradition of falsafa in Islam by rejecting some of its teachings while adopting others. He and other scholars of his time achieved an effective integration of falsafa into Muslim theology. This article looks at his life and focuses in particular on his relationship with political figures who were his patrons and supported the wider distribution of his teachings. In 1912, Ignaz Goldziher suggested that the rationalism represented by Fakhr al-Dīn could flourish only in the eastern Muslim provinces, where the forces of Muslim orthodoxy predominant in Islam’s centre did not reach. This article shows that the most powerful rulers of the pre-Mongol period in the Muslim east, namely the Khwarazmshahs, the Ghurids, and the Ayyubids actively supported the spread of Fakhr al-Dīn’s rationalist theology in their domains. While at war with one another, the Khwarazmshahs and the Ghurids competed to be patrons of Fakhr al-Dīn, built schools for him, and courted him and his teachings. His books were well known in Syria and Egypt, where the Ayyubids commissioned his work. Supporting Fakhr al-Dīn and his teachings was part of a religious policy that aimed at spreading his kind of rationalist Ashʿarism at the expense of its rivals. In Iran, Transoxania, and Afghanistan, where Fakhr al-Dīn was active, these were mostly the Karramis but also Maturidi Hanafis.

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