Shams al-D?n al-Samarqand?'s Theological Views in the Context of his work al-Anwáru al-iláhiyya

Since its emergence, kalam (theology), which has developed by renewing itself according to current discussion topics, has aimed to produce solutions for many theological problems that have emerged during its development. In line with this aim, many scholars from the early periods of Islam have written extensive or summarized works dealing with all or some of the problems of faith. The method called philosophical kalam, which developed after Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and discussed the problems within the philosophical tradition from a religious point of view, also emerged for this purpose. Although this method was originally initiated by Ash'arite theologians, it was later adopted and continued by Maturidi theologians. Shams al-Din al-Samarqandi was among the Maturidi theologians who composed works according to this new method. Samarqandi wrote three basic theological texts according to this method. These are his al-Sahaif al-ilahiyya, al-Anwar al-Ilahiyya, and al-Mu'takadat. The latter two works differ from the former and from other post-Razi theological texts in their content. These two works, which examine the basic concepts and issues of logic, debate, and theology, have an original systematic. In addition, in the work, al-Samarqandi put forward his own views on many issues such as the definition of the concept of existence, divine attributes, tawhid (unity), name-definite (ism-musamma), the issue of besha'ir al-nubuwwa (indications of prop-hethood), the increase and decrease of faith, the husn-qubh (good-evil) and tafdil (the pri-macy of the first generations). For example, in the division of divine attributes, he differs from the Maturidi school by preferring a different division in the form of essential (haqiqi) and secondary (idafi) attributes. Again, for example, it can be mentioned in this context that he prefers goodness and evil to be zati (intrinsic), wasfi (qualitative) or i'tibari (relative) in the matter of husn and qubh, and that he adopts a different opinion than the general opinion in the matter of tafdil. This study aims to identify and analyze Samarqandi's original theological evaluations in his work al-Anwar. However, for this purpose, not only Samarqandi's al-Anwar, but also his other theological works and the texts written by pre-Samarqandi theologians were consulted.