Anthropomorphism in Islam

Livnat Holtzman is an expert in Islamic theology. She specializes in traditionalist theology from the inception of Islam until the 15th century, and has published extensively on the thought of Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya. Currently she is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Arabic at Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

• IntroductionChapter 1: The Narrator and the Narrative: A Literary Analysis of Ahādīth al-sifāt Introduction I. A Preliminary Remark on Hadith and NarratologyII. The Framing NarrativeIII. The Embedded Narrative IV. The Narrator and His AudienceV. The Motives of the Narrator VI. The Narrator’s Role Chapter 2: A Tale of Two Narrators: Some Historical, Geographical, and Cultural Considerations IntroductionI. Two Different Narrators II. The Proliferation of the Abu Razin Narrative III. Two Narrators and One Narrative: The Tribal Connection IV. The Proliferation of the Jarir NarrativeV. The Jarir Narrative and the MiḥnaChapter 3: Gestures and Aḥādīth al-Ṣifāt IntroductionI. The Prophet’s Gestures: Iconic, Metaphoric, and Deictic II. ‘The Instance of Narrating’: The Narrator and His Audience III. The Performing Trend IV. The Ultimate Performer of Aḥādīth al-Ṣifāt V. The Predicament of the TraditionalistsChapter 4: The Diversified Solution to the Challenge of Islamic Traditionalism: Aḥādīth al-Ṣifāt and Bi-Lā Kayfa IntroductionI. Drawing the Borderlines of the Traditionalistic Discourse II. The Earliest DebateIII. Transmission, Censorship, and EuphemismsIV. The All-Inclusive Tanzīh: The Ashʿarite Solution V. Expanding the Borders of the Traditionalistic Discourse Chapter 5: Iconic Books and Gestures: Aḥādīth al-Ṣifāt in the Public SphereIntroductionI. The Iconicity of the Qadiri CreedII. The Three Dimensions of Kitāb al-Tawḥīd III. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi’s Response to Kitāb al-Tawḥīd IV. Ibn Taymiyya’s al-Ḥamawiyya al-Kubrā and Two Iconic Gestures V. Iconic Gestures and the HashwiyyaFinal Remarks and ConclusionsAppendix I: Full Translations of Lengthy Traditions 1. A Marginal Version of Ḥadīth al-Nuzūl 2. The Lengthy Ḥadīth al-Ruʼya3. The Lengthy Ḥadīth Fidāʼ al-Muʼmin from Ibn ʿAsakir’s Tārīkh DimashqAppendix II: Full Translation of ‘the Ḥadīth of Allegiance’ of Abu Razin Appendix III: Chains of TransmissionAppendix IV: Chains of TransmissionAppendix V: Chains of TransmissionBIBLIOGRAPHYI. Primary SourcesII. Secondary Sources

Livnat Holtzman takes a comprehensive and innovative view on aḥādīth al-ṣifāt during the formative and classical age of Sunnī Islam [...] The primary goal of Holtzman’s book is to reveal the theological debates behind aḥādīth al-ṣifāt, which she pursues with impressive clarity and persuasiveness.