CAUSALITYISLAM
In Defense of Philosophy: Verifying Causes, Nature, and the Universe in Early Modern Ottoman Scholarship (1400-1550)
Project
This three-year research project, based at Ca’ Foscari University of Venice (Department of Philosophy and Cultural Heritage), investigates the intersections of Graeco-Arabic philosophy and “Sharia” in early modern Ottoman debates on physics and metaphysics, with particular attention to causality and occasionalism. It offers the first comprehensive study of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Ottoman philosophical scholarship, focusing on disputes concerning “ṭabīʿa” (nature) and “ʿilliyya” (causality).
Drawing extensively on unpublished manuscripts from Persia, Anatolia, the Balkans, and North Africa, the project situates Ottoman commentaries and glosses within the longue durée of Avicennan philosophy and its Ilkhanid/Timurid interpreters, showing how Ottoman “muḥaqqiqūn” (verifiers) such as Ḫocazāde, Mü’eyyedzāde, İbn Kemāl, Sinān Paşa, ʿAlī Qūshjī, and Mollā Luṭfī defended and adapted Avicennan doctrines while mediating their compatibility with “Sharia”.
In contrast, figures like ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī, Ḫayālī, and Kastalānī advanced post-classical Ashʿarite critiques that challenged Graeco-Arabic conceptions of nature and causality, revealing the plurality of intellectual positions within the Ottoman madrasa.
Rejecting entrenched binaries of philosophy versus theology or originality versus commentary, the project argues that commentaries and glosses were not derivative, but rather the creative infrastructure of Ottoman intellectual life.
In doing so, it challenges assumptions about the decline of philosophy in early modern Islam and recontextualizes Kātib Çelebi’s notion of the “verifiers” as scholars who redefined the relationship between God, nature, and causality.
In early modern Islamic philosophy, nature ("ṭabīʿa") and causality ("ʿilliyya") stood at the intersection of physics, metaphysics, and speculative theology. The definition of nature in relation to God’s agency, and the status of causal interactions in the world, constituted a perennial problem from the classical tradition into early modern scholarship. Causality functioned as the central paradigm for rationalizing how events occur, serving as the conceptual bridge between metaphysical speculation and physical inquiry, and linking the celestial and sublunary spheres under a unified explanatory framework.
At the same time, causal terminology allowed scholars to engage theological and ethical questions – creation, divine attributes, miracles, occasionalism, free will, and the problem of evil – within a systematic discourse. Thus, debates on nature and causation were not merely technical, but provided the overarching framework through which Ottoman and post-classical thinkers articulated the relationship between divine power and worldly phenomena.
Research
The overall objective is to provide a connected, non essentialist account of early modern causal theories linking Ottoman and European contexts. This is articulated into three Specific Objectives:
A unified yet differentiated concept of causality
Avicennan and post classical frameworks provide differentiated models of causation across inorganic, organic, and human domains. Ottoman scholars theorized necessity, efficacy, and finality in dialogue with Graeco Arabic traditions. Current historical narratives tend to ignore the role of rationalism in early modern Islamic scholarship due to geographical essentialisms.
CAUSALITYISLAM addresses this by making an interdisciplinary, non essentialist approach to Islamic scientific communities its foundation, complemented by lectures, seminars, and workshops.
Plural traditions and contested intellectual geographies
Existing research often privileges Renaissance Europe, overlooking the achievements of contemporaneous Ottoman scholars who synthesized philosophy, theology, and Sufism. Due to anachronistic methodologies and lack of manuscript research, Ottoman scholarship is overshadowed by Renaissance achievements.
CAUSALITYISLAM will foreground Ottoman scientific communities and rewrite prevalent narratives, highlighting cultural and scientific links with Europe.
Knowledge, vulnerability, and the defence of philosophy
Islamic philosophers constructed conceptions of scientia (ʿilm) at the intersection of science, religion, and philosophy, often in dialogue with Avicennan doctrines and their Latin receptions. There is little explicit scholarly accounting of the influence of post classical Islamic causal theories on other traditions, particularly Ottoman contributions.
CAUSALITYISLAM will showcase unstudied Ottoman manuscripts in a book length study – the first of its kind – and provide a rich prosopographical account of defenders of philosophy against Sharia in the 15th-16th centuries (1400-1550).
Methodology
The project adopts a non-essentialist, trans-regional, and manuscript-driven approach that integrates philosophy, theology, and the history of science. It combines a comparative analysis of Ottoman commentaries and glosses with Latin scholastic and Renaissance sources, while also constructing a prosopographical account of defenders and critics of Avicennan theory of causation – such as Ḫocazāde, Mü’eyyedzāde, ʿAlī Qūshjī, and İbn Kemāl – set against counter-examples like ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Ṭūsī and Ḫayālī.
Impact
Scientific impact
- This project constitutes the first high-profile, book-length study of Ottoman causal theory and its entanglements with European traditions.
- It will generate open-access outputs – articles, a monograph – and public events, including seminars, workshops, and colloquia.
- Planned publications include two articles on early Ottoman conceptions of nature: one on the subject matter of natural philosophy in Ḫocazāde’s gloss on Mullāzāde’s Hidāya commentary, and another on the role of hylomorphism in Ottoman manuals. A further article will examine theologico-philosophical allusions in the poetry of Ottoman ulama, with particular emphasis on Aristotelian-Avicennan references.
- Methodologically, the project advances an interdisciplinary model connecting Islamic philosophy, the history of science, and critical historiography.
Societal and policy alignment
- The project revises Eurocentric narratives by foregrounding Mediterranean intellectual circulation and pluralism, thereby contributing to more inclusive histories of philosophy and science.
- It aligns with EU and UN goals on equity, education, and cultural heritage.
- Its public-facing programming seeks to broaden awareness of Islamic contributions to early modern science.
