Abstract:

Abstract enThis research which is composed of three chapters is about the main methods related to the History of Religions used in Shahrastani’s al-milel wa’n-nihal of. The first chapter focuses on the importance of the book. Whereas the second chapter gives detailed information about the said methods. This chapter includes the general information about the sources used by Shahrastani and his intellectual environment since they influenced his approach. The following part of the second chapter is about the methods that he used, namely; objective and descriptive method, method of forming terminology, hermeneutical method according to Mircea Eliade, the historiosophic and gnostic method which is the interpretation of history of religions according to a certain ‘wisdom’, the method of ‘counterpart and correspondence’. The last and third chapter focuses, between others, on the typological and geographical methods of Shahrastani, which he uses in order to classify the religions and believes.

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