POST-SAMARQANDI OTTOMAN ARGUMENTATION THEORY:THE QUESTIONER IN SAÇAKLIZADE

POST-SAMARQANDI OTTOMAN ARGUMENTATION THEORY:THE QUESTIONER IN SAÇAKLIZADE

After more than two centuries of the diffusion of argumentative discourseinto theology, philosophy, law, grammar and poetry in the classicalperiod (tenth through twelfth centuries), Shams al-Din Samarqandi claimed tohave discovered the science of “âdâb al-bahs.” Ottoman intellectuals contri—buted individual treatises on the subject. Adâb al-bahth as theoretical genreof argumentation theory carried on until the late nineteenth century. LarryMiller argues that none of the post-classical writings went much beyond the rules that Samarqandi gave in the Risala and Qustas. This article specificallyquestions Miller’s claim.

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