The Debates

The Debates, is the name of a book written by Fakhr Razi, in Arabic. There are 16 debates of Fakh Razi with some philosophers on the Islamic philosophy and ancient Greek philosophy. In the beginning of each debate, the name of the debater is mentioned, but the are not any explanations on their biographies and their philosophical views. By the debates it seems they were either Fakhr Razi’s students or those who disagreed with him.

The author
####Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Umar Ibn Hossein Tabaristani Razi, also known as "Imam Fakhr", Ibn al –Khatib" ,"Fakhr Razi" and also "Imam al- Mushakkekin" (because he doubted about most of the philosophical subjects), a famous Iranian Sunni theologian and philosopher. He was born in 1149 in Ray –Iran and died in 1209. He studied jurisprudence and Kalam and other Islamic sciences under his father and then studied under Majduddin Jili. He wrote on medicine, astrology, physics, literature, history and law. Fakhr Razi was from "Shafi'i" of Islamic law. Razi's most major work is "The keys to the unknown" (his exegesis on the Quran) and his most important philosophical work is "Eastern discussions".

Structure of the book
The book consists of 16 debates as following:
1- The debate with al-Razi Neishaburi, on jurisprudence
2- The debate with al-Nur al-Sabuni
3- The debate with al-Nur al-Sabuni, on existence and creation
4- The debate with the judge of Ghazna (name of a city), on existence and creation
5- The debate with al-Nur al-Sabuni, on essence during the period of time
6- The debate with al-Rukn al-Qazvini, on perpetrator and reformist souls
7- The debate with the people of Bukhara, on analogy
8- The debate with Sharaf al-Din Masoudi, on analogy in juridical problems
9- The debate with al-Sharaf Masoudi, on celestial theorems
10- The debate with al-Shraf Masoudi
11- The debate with al-Sharaf Masoudi, on religious and juridical theorems
12- The debate on the juridical and religious theorems
13- The principles of theology
14- The teachings and views of Ash’ariyya (the school of orthodox theology) and criticism of Mu’tazila
15- The debate with al-Razi Neishaburi, on theology and jurisprudence
16- The debate with al-Farid al-Qiyani