Research Interests:
Islamic intellectual history, conflicts between reason-based knowledge and faith-based knowledge in pre-modern Islam, Judaism and Christianity; conflicts between philosophy and religious authority, religious tolerance in the pre-modern period.
Biography:
Frank Griffel is Professor of the Study of Abrahamic Religions at Oxford University and Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. He has published widely in the fields of Islamic philosophy and theology as well as Muslim intellectual history. After working on apostasy in Islam and on the leading theologian and philosopher al-Ghazālī (d. 1111), Griffel turned his interest toward the history of philosophy in Islam and Judaism, particularly during Islam’s post-classical period after the 11th century. He publishes in English and in German and his books have been translated into Turkish and Arabic. Griffel is also the Louis M. Rabinowitz Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at Yale University.
Educational Background:
MA 1995 Free University Berlin in Philosophy and Arabic Literature
PhD 1999 Free University Berlin, summa cum laude
Recent Publications
Essay Review: Al-Suhrawardī’s Philosophy Contextualized.” Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 34 (2024): 139–152.
“Diversität, Widersprüche und Ambiguität. Versuch einer vollständigeren Geschichte der Philosophie im Islam“ In: Diversität im Islam. Die vergessenen Botschaft. Edited by Zekiriya Sejdini. Wiesbaden: Springer VS, 2003. 35–57.
“Two Divergent Schools in 6th/12th Century Arabic Philosophy and Maimonides’ Seventh Reason for Contradictions in Books.” In Religious and Intellectual Diversity in the Islamicate World and Beyond: Essays in Honor of Sarah Stroumsa. Edited by Sabine Schmidtke and Omer Michaelis. 2 vols. Leiden: Brill, 2023. Vol. 1, 337–368.
“On the Authenticity of The Throne Epistle (al-Risāla al-ʿArshiyya) Ascribed to Avicenna.” In Penser avec Avicenne. De l'héritage grec à la réception latine: un état de la recherche en hommage à Jules Janssens. Edited by Daniel De Smet and Meryem Sebti. Leuven (Belgium): Peeters Publishers, 2022. 193–229.
The Formation of Post-Classical Philosophy in Islam. New York: Oxford University Press, 2021.
“The Place of Virtue Ethics Within the Post-Classical Discourse on ḥikma. Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s al-Nafs wa-l-rūḥ wa-sharḥ quwāhumā.” Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies. 21.2 (2021): 55–80
“Ibn Taymiyya and His Ashʿarite Opponents on Reason and Revelation: Similarities, Differences, and a Vicious Circle.” The Muslim World 108 (2018): 11–39.
Den Islam denken. Versuch, eine Religion zu verstehen [How to Think About Islam. Essay on Understanding a Religion.] Stuttgart: Reclam Verlag, 2018.
