Ayman Shihadeh
Ayman Shihadeh is Professor of the Intellectual History of the Islamic World at SOAS University of London and one of the foremost contemporary scholars of Islamic philosophy, theology, and intellectual history. His research has transformed scholarly understanding of the development of philosophical and theological traditions in the Islamic world, particularly during the post-classical period, which has increasingly emerged as one of the most dynamic areas of Islamic intellectual history.
Professor Shihadeh’s scholarship focuses on the interactions between philosophy (falsafa), theology (kalām), logic, metaphysics, and epistemology in the centuries following Avicenna. Through close engagement with Arabic manuscripts and previously understudied texts, he has demonstrated the intellectual vitality and sophistication of later Islamic thought, challenging older narratives that portrayed the post-classical period as an era of decline.
A major focus of his research has been the theological and philosophical traditions associated with figures such as al-Ghazālī, Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, and later Ashʿarī theologians. His studies illuminate how Muslim scholars grappled with questions concerning existence, causality, divine action, knowledge, language, and human responsibility. By reconstructing intellectual debates across centuries, he has helped reveal the complexity and diversity of Islamic theological reasoning.
Professor Shihadeh is particularly renowned for his work on Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī and the emergence of new syntheses between philosophy and theology in the post-Avicennan period. His research has shown how later Muslim thinkers transformed inherited traditions through creative engagement with metaphysics, logic, and natural philosophy, producing new intellectual frameworks that shaped Islamic scholarship for centuries.
In addition to his monographs and articles, Professor Shihadeh has played a major role in the preservation and dissemination of Islamic intellectual heritage through critical editions and translation projects. He serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Bulletin of SOAS, Editor of the Encyclopaedia of Islam, Editor of Brill’s Islamic Translation Series, and editor of the influential series Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science: Texts and Studies. Through these initiatives, he has contributed significantly to advancing research and making important texts accessible to wider audiences.
His scholarship is characterized by a combination of meticulous textual analysis and broader intellectual-historical inquiry. By situating philosophical and theological debates within their historical contexts while also engaging their enduring philosophical significance, he has helped establish new standards in the study of Islamic intellectual history.
