Adaqah al-Akim and Samaritan religious thought of 11th - 13th centuries

The article presents an analysis of religious and philosophical teachings of well-known Samaritan theologian and exegete Ṣadaqah ibn Munaǧǧā al-Ḥakīm (d. ca. 1223), mentioned in his monumental interpretation of the Book of Genesis. The author explicates Ṣadaqah’s constructions concerning the ontology of divine attributes and the nature of human action. It is shown that the Mu’tazili theology of attributes, adopted by ʾAbū al-Ḥasan al-Ṣūrī in the 11th century, was cited by Munaǧǧā ibn Ṣadaqah and his son, al-Ḥakīm, without any special changes. From Munaǧǧā’s works Ṣadaqah borrows a notable discussion on the particular nature of Absolute’s knowledge. The anthropology of our exegete is based on the “theory of appropriation” (kasb) developed by Munaǧǧā, according to which man freely chooses his action and appropriates the act created by God. It is also noted that Ṣadaqah was familiar with the works of ʾAbū Ḥāmid al-Ġazālī, which enriched the Samaritan discourse with the doctrine of the image of God and an original typology of religious disciplines. The study is preceded by information about the biography of al-Ḥakīm and his surviving works.