The Dialectical Forge

In addition to overviews of current evolutionary narratives for Islamic legal theory and dialectic, and expositions on key texts, this work shines an analytical light upon the considerably sophisticated "proto-system" of juridical dialectical teaching and practice evident in Islam's second century, several generations before the first "full-system" treatises of legal and dialectical theory were composed. This proto-system is revealed from analyses of dialectical sequences in the 2^nd/8^th century Kitab Ikhtilaf al-¿Iraqiyyin / ¿Iraqiyyayn (the "subject-text") through a lens molded from 5^th/11^th century jadal-theory treatises (the "lens-texts"). Specific features thus uncovered inform the elaboration of a Dialectical Forge Model, whose more general components and functions are explored in closing chapters.