Abu Zayd’s Intellectual Lineage

Abstract

Abstract This chapter illuminates three primary influences in Abu Zayd’s intellectual journey: first, the previous generations of reformers, the nahḍa scholars, including professors who held positions in Abu Zayd’s university, who are treated here and in Chapter 2. By the time Abu Zayd assumed his position at Cairo University, his department had fired five professors for conducting research that the religious establishment deemed controversial. The chapter illuminates how their work informed Abu Zayd’s own scholarship. The second influence stems from another period of enlightenment, but this time from a medieval era, namely, the rationalism of the Muʿtazila and the spirituality of Sufism. Both of these Islamic intellectual trends have been marginalized or considered controversial in Muslim societies in modern times. Finally, the chapter addresses how Abu Zayd was profoundly shaped by what he called the “religious discourse.” As Abu Zayd employed it, the religious discourse is a derogatory term. It encompasses all religious opponents to modern humanist values.