Dilin Kökeni Üzerine Klasik İslâmî Söylem: Kültürel Hafıza ve Sünnîliğin Savunusu

Year 2022, Volume: 20 Issue: 1, 495 - 516, 30.06.2022

Translator: Sibel Dinçaslan Translator: Rumeysa Uysal

https://doi.org/10.18317/kaderdergi.1103930

Abstract

Erken dönem İslâm düşünce geleneğinde, dilin kökeni (aslu’l-luga) konusunda iki temel görüş geliştirildi. Genelde tevkîf olarak bahsedilen, ilahi failin dilin vaz‘ edilmesinde üstün rol oynadığını vurgulayan ve bu açıdan ispat gerektirmeyen (axiomatic) birinci görüş şudur: lafızların manaları başlangıçta Tanrı tarafından belirlenmiştir. Bu tutuma karşı tez olarak sunulan ve ıstılâh olarak adlandırılan ikinci doktrin ise dilin –sonradan- kurulduğunu, genel uylaşım ve anlaşma süreciyle evrildiğini esas alır: Kelimeler anlamlarıyla birlikte insanlar tarafından tayin edilmiştir. Ancak hem tevkîf hem de ıstılâh doktrinleri, kelimelerin muayyen manaları ile olan gerçek ilişkilerinin doğal olduğunu reddederek tamamen nedensiz (arbitrary) olduğunu ileri sürmüştür. Her ne kadar müteahhir İslam düşünce geleneği, her ikisinin de mantıklı olduğunu kabul etse de, dokuz ve onuncu yüzyıllarda konu hakkındaki görüşler dikkate değer biçimde, sünnî (orthodox) ve arch-rasyonalist şeklinde fırkalara ayrılmıştır ki bunlardan ilki tevkîfi ikincisi de ıstılâhı onaylamıştır. Geleneksel tevkîf argümanlarının kavramsal bir savunusunu sağlamada Sünnî kelâmcılar, birleştirici bir yapı oluşturmak zorundaydı. Bu yapının hatırlama (remembrance), sürdürme (continuation) ve özdeşlik (identitiy) üzerinden ifade edilmesi kelamcılara, tevkîfin kurgusunu, selefle ilişkilendirilmiş metin yorumu ve sünnî simgeler üzerine formel bir biçimde dayandırma olanağı sağladı. Geçmişe yapılan referanslarla sağlanan bu yapı, sünnî inanç olarak kabul edileni savunmada, kültürel hafızanın rolünü onaylamış gibi görünebilir.

Keywords

İslâm, Dilin kökeni, Nahivciler, Sünnîlik, Mu‘tezile, Eş‘arîyye

Thanks

Makale çevirisinde kendisinden sık sık yardım aldığımız ve istifade ettiğimiz kıymetli hocamız Dr. Öğr. Gör. Emine Enise Yakar 'a teşekkürü borç biliriz.

Classical Islamic Discourse on the Origins of Language: Cultural Memory and the Defense of Orthodoxy

Abstract

Classical Islamic scholarship developed two principal theses on the subject of the origin of language (aṣl al-lugha). The first of these theses, commonly referred to as tawqīf, accentuated the pre-eminent role that divine agency played in the imposition of language; axiomatic within this perspective is the view that words (lafẓ pl. alfāẓ) have been assigned their meanings (maʿnā pl. maʿānī) primordially by God. Presented as something of an antithesis to this position, the second doctrine, labeled iṣṭilāḥ, predicates that language was established and evolved via a process of common convention and agreement: words together with their meanings were assigned by human beings, although both the doctrines of tawqīf and iṣṭilāḥ posit that the actual relationship between words and their assigned meanings remains entirely arbitrary, rejecting any sort of natural link between the two. Although later Islamic scholarship accepted that both theses were plausible, within the course of the 9th/10th centuries opinions on the subject were ostensibly polarized between orthodox and arch-rationalist camps with the former endorsing tawqīf and the latter iṣṭilāḥ. In the quest to achieve a conceptual defense of traditional arguments for tawqīf it was necessary for orthodox theologians to create a connective structure, as articulated through reference to remembrance, continuation, and identity, which enabled them to anchor the construct of tawqīf in a formalized way to the scriptural exegesis and emblems of orthodoxy associated with the pious ancestors. That this was successfully accomplished through references to the past would seem to confirm the role which cultural memory played in the defense of what was deemed an orthodox belief.

Keywords

Islam, Origins of language, Arabic grammarians, Orthodoxy, Muʿtazilites, Ashʿaris

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