Muʿtezile Kelâmında Nevâbit Algısı: Kelâmî Bir Analiz ve Felsefî İzdüşümleri
Perception of Nawābit in Muʿtazilite Kalām: A Theological Analysis and Its Philosophical Implications

Summary/Abstract: This article examines the semantic content, historical deveoplent, and shifts in meaning of the concept of nawābit within Muʿtazilī kalām, addressing its doctrinal (iʿtiqādī), social (ijtimāʿī), and political dimensions. The scope of the study is limited to identifying the various meanings attributed to the term by scholars who engaged with the concept of nawābit in Muʿtazilī thought, as well as analyzing the semantic transformations the term underwent over time. In this regard, particular attention is devoted to the views of prominent theologians such as al-Jāhiẓ, al-Khayyāṭ, and al-Zamakhsharī, who employed the concept in a pronounced manner. The study aims to demonstrate that the discourse of nawābit was not merely utilized as a label of denigration and disparagement; rather, it also functioned as an instrument of exclusion and defense through which different intellectual schools delineated their epistemic boundaries, articulated their perceptions of social order, and constructed claims to legitimacy. In this respect, the article highlights the often-overlooked role of conceptual labels and polemical designations in shaping power relations and processes of knowledge production within the fields of kalām and the secterian historiography. As a products of the systems they construct, sectarian formations seek both to establish epistemic authority through the production of knowledge in the field of kalām and to generate sociopolitical spheres of power through their relations with political authority and society. Within this framework, the concept of nawābit emerges as an expression of the need to define the correct by first identifying and excluding the incorrect. The first chapter of the study offers an etymological analysis of the term nawābit, constructing its metaphorical semantic field through the distinction between nābita and nabāt. This analysis suggests that the term nawābit was employed to designate individuals or groups who neglect reason in matters of belief, interpret religious texts in a rigidly literalist manner, and are perceived as lacking epistemic competence. Al-Jāhiẓ employs the term nawābit to describe those who sought to legitimize the injustice, abuses, and erroneous practices of the Umayyad political authority; who adopted a determinist (jabrī) understanding of predestination; and who advanced anthropomorphic (tajsīm) and assimilationist (tashbīh) views through literalist readings of scriptural texts. Later Muʿtazilī theologians such as al-Khayyāṭ and al-Zamakhsharī preserved the core meaning of the term while simultaneously expanding its semantic scope. In the course of this development, the concept underwent significant semantic shifts. Indeed, following al-Jāhiẓ, the term came to signify not a specific sect, but rather epistemic degeneration within sectarian structures, scholarly inadequacy, polemical excess, and tendencies toward marginalization. Among Islamic philosophers, alFārābī employs the concept of nawābit to characterize the vicious elements within the virtuous city, whereas Ibn Bājja uses the same term to refer to the virtuous individuals within a corrupt society. By contrast, certain scholars associated with Ahl al-Hadīth, such as Ibn Qutayba and Ibn Abī Yaʿlā, employed the term to describe Ahl al-Raʾy and other groups critical of their positions. Methodologically, the study adopts a textcentered reading alongside a historical-conceptual analytical approach.

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