An Ottoman Commentary Tradition on Ghazālī's Tahāfut al-falāsifa. Preliminary Observations

Ghazālī’s “The incoherence of the philosophers” spurred a counter-commentary by Ibn Rushd, as is well known. Up to ten texts from Ottoman scholars also purport to be commentaries on the Tahāfut, constituting a commentary tradition that has been neglected by scholars. The first two commentators, Khojazāda (d. 1488) and ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn Ṭūsī (d. 1482), are not line-by-line exegetes of Ghazālī, but rather update the discussions that Ghazālī broached to the level of knowledge available to them. Khojazāda was favored by the Ottomans, but ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn’s content, methodology and argumentation style proves to be just as, if not more, interesting for us.