Sarah Stroumsa, Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn Al-Rawandi, Abu Bakr Al-Razi and Their Impact on Islamic Thought (Book Review‪)‬

Sarah Stroumsa, Freethinkers of Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Rawandi, Abu Bakr al-Razi and Their Impact on Islamic Thought (Leiden/Boston/Koln: Brill, 1999), ix+261 pp, HB, ISBN 90 04 11374 6 Denoting the period around the third-fourth century after the hijrah (migration) of the Prophet of Islam to Madinah as "medieval", "early medieval Islam" and "early Islam"--all treated as near synonyms--this book explores "two paradoxes" of this era: (i) the relative marginal position accorded to two "freethinkers" of this period; and (ii) the vehemence with which Muslim thinkers supposedly attacked freethinking even though this was a "marginal and short-lived" phenomenon of the medieval Islam.