# Fakhr al-Din al-Razi
**Fakhr al-Din al-Razi** (1149–1210 CE; 544–606 AH) was a Sunni Ash'arite theologian, Qur'an exegete, and philosopher-theologian of Rayy in Persia, one of the most innovative and influential thinkers of early post-classical Islamic thought[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/). He is characterized in scholarship as a heavily philosophizing Ash'ari mutakallim, a master dialectician, and an influential critic of Ibn Sina[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/arabic-sciences-and-philosophy/article/abs/from-alghazali-to-alrazi-6th12th-century-developments-in-muslim-philosophical-theology/78BA2498C60BAD551F35CD1C641A7726), and he is credited with most completely effecting the incorporation of philosophical argumentation into Sunni theology that al-Ghazali had begun[3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy). His Qur'an commentary *Mafatih al-Ghayb* (Keys to the Hidden), known as *al-Tafsir al-kabir*, runs to 32 volumes in the modern printing[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Dates | 1149–1210 CE (606 AH); died in Herat; the Routledge Encyclopedia gives 1149–1209 as a variant dating[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/) • [3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy) |
| Corpus | Nearly a hundred known writings covering almost every aspect of Muslim intellectual life[4](https://al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-volume-1-book-3/chapter-32-fakhr-al-razi) |
| Tafsir | *Mafatih al-Ghayb*: 32 volumes in the modern printing, eight in quarto; completed by a pupil[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/) • [3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy) |
| Summae | *al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya* (over 1,200 pages printed); *al-Matalib al-'Aliya* in nine books bound in five volumes[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/) |
| Patrons | Two decades under the Khwarazm-Shahs, then the Ghurids from 1197, then the Khwarazm-Shahs again before his death[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/) |
| Proofs for God | Four proofs: from the contingency of essences, the temporal origination of essences, the contingency of attributes, and the temporal origination of attributes[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/) |
| Legacy | Named mujaddid (renewer) of the faith at the end of the 6th/12th century by Taj al-Din al-Subki[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/arabic-sciences-and-philosophy/article/abs/from-alghazali-to-alrazi-6th12th-century-developments-in-muslim-philosophical-theology/78BA2498C60BAD551F35CD1C641A7726) |
## Life, travels, and patrons
Born in Rayy, al-Razi studied under his father, Diya' al-Din 'Umar, before setting off on travels throughout Persia and Central Asia; he died in Herat[5](https://its.org.uk/catalogue/the-great-exegesis-volume-ii/). Britannica describes his travels as running through present-day northwestern Iran and [Turkistan](https://www.edgepedia.org/turkistan) before he finally settled in Herat, now in Afghanistan[6](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fakhr-ad-Din-ar-Razi).
**Patronage shaped his career.** His mature career has been divided into three phases in a recent detailed overview (Griffel 2021: 264–303; see also Street 1997, Griffel 2007, Altaş 2013a–b, Shihadeh 2022)[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/). He first enjoyed the support of the Khwarazm-Shahs for about two decades, then joined the Ghurids in 1197 after their military defeat of the Khwarazm-Shahs, becoming a close companion and teacher of the Ghurid sultan Ghiyath al-Din (d. 1203), before rejoining the Khwarazm-Shahs and dying in Herat in 1210[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
His own record of scholarly encounters around 1186, the *Munazarat* (Debates), presents him as "the only respectable scholar among a swarm of dimwits"; the debates promoted Ash'arite kalam (Islamic speculative theology using rational argument) against Maturidis and Shafi'i law against Hanbalis, amid a rivalry with the Karramite movement, and he was accused of lingering loyalty to the Ghurid court's enemies[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/). His fame and wealth were proverbial: it was said that wherever he rode, 300 of his students accompanied him on foot, and that when he moved between cities 1,000 mules carried his possessions; Britannica reports this as a saying, not a verified count[6](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fakhr-ad-Din-ar-Razi).
## Works and corpus
Nearly a hundred writings of al-Razi are known, dealing with almost every aspect of Muslim intellectual life and including all the sciences of his time[4](https://al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-volume-1-book-3/chapter-32-fakhr-al-razi); Britannica gives the figure as about 100 books[6](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fakhr-ad-Din-ar-Razi). His theological works include *Kitab al-Arba'in fi Usul al-Din*, *Lawami' al-Bayyinat*, and the *Muhassal*, which became a classical source book on kalam almost from the moment of its composition; in the *Muhassal* he divides theology into preliminaries, being and its divisions, rational theology, and traditional questions[4](https://al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-volume-1-book-3/chapter-32-fakhr-al-razi). His first summa, *al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya* (Eastern Points of Investigation on [Metaphysics](https://www.edgepedia.org/metaphysics) and Physics), runs to more than 1,200 pages in the modern printing, and his final summa, *al-Matalib al-'Aliya*, is printed in nine books bound in five volumes[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
His range extended beyond theology: he wrote *Kitab al-Sirr al-Maktum* on astrology and astronomy, a commentary on Ibn Sina's *Qanun*, and works on medicine, geometry, physiognomy, agriculture, and theurgy, alongside the exegetical and legal works *Mafatih al-Ghayb* and *al-Ma'alim fi Usul al-Fiqh*[4](https://al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-volume-1-book-3/chapter-32-fakhr-al-razi). He also wrote two commentaries on Ibn Sina's *al-Isharat wa-l-tanbihat*: *Sharh al-Isharat* and the 1201 critical abridgment *Lubab al-Isharat*[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
**The corpus is still unsettled.** A 2025 manuscript study argues that the edited textus receptus of *al-Matalib al-'Aliya* is incomplete, lacking volumes on logic, general metaphysics, and possibly physics, and that a recently discovered manuscript (Fatih 3145) contains authentic Razian material related to the missing volumes; Muhammad al-Zarkan had noted the incompleteness as early as 1963[7](http://meykhane.altervista.org/7._Zamboni_DEF._QMEY_15-1_special_issue.pdf). As of 2005, some of his most important books still awaited publication[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/arabic-sciences-and-philosophy/article/abs/from-alghazali-to-alrazi-6th12th-century-developments-in-muslim-philosophical-theology/78BA2498C60BAD551F35CD1C641A7726).
## Theology and method
Al-Razi's major theological works all begin with a section on metaphysics, a pattern followed by most later Sunni writers, and it was through him that the marriage of philosophy and Sunni theology was most completely effected[3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy). Within the Ash'ari tradition running from Baqillani (d. 1013) to al-Razi (d. 1210), he provides a systematic account of the relation of reason to revelation in two influential principles[8](https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fakhr_al_Din_al.pdf). He held that proofs based on hadith could never lead to certainty (*yaqin*) but only to presumption (*zann*), making the self-sufficiency of the intellect one of his major concerns[3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy).
**Four proofs for God's existence.** Al-Razi distinguishes four main proofs available in his time: from the contingency of essences; from the temporal origination (*huduth*) of essences; from the contingency of attributes; and from the temporal origination of attributes. He held Ibn Sina's argument from contingency the most fundamental[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
**Logic.** One of his most important innovations is his suggestion that Ibn Sina failed to distinguish between the alethic and temporal understandings of necessity, a move that founded what has been called "revisionist Avicennan logic" (El-Rouayheb 2019: 68–69)[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/). His *Mulakhkhas* restructured the curriculum of the sciences (logic, generalities, natural philosophy, philosophical theology), and he systematically used disjunctions to structure general metaphysics, an innovation that has been compared to [Duns Scotus](https://www.edgepedia.org/duns-scotus)[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/). In language theory, a monograph reconstructs his view that all concepts are self-evident, challenging the epistemology of conceptualization (*tasawwur*) advanced by al-Farabi (870–950) and Ibn Sina (980–1037), and his refinement of '[Abd al-Qahir al-Jurjani](https://www.edgepedia.org/abd-al-qahir-al-jurjani)'s (1009–1078) theory of linguistic composition (*nazm*)[9](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112205983/html).
**Dialectical method.** His summae are organized into topics (*mabahith*, *matalib*) with arguments for and against every conceivable stance; the Sufi poet al-Rumi compared this approach to "tearing science apart like bread and feeding it to the birds"[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
**Shifting positions.** The question of how far he should be considered a philosopher rather than a theologian is complicated by changes of view during his life and by his highly disputatious and often intemperate personality, which he himself acknowledged[3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy). He rejected Ash'ari atomism in earlier works such as the *Mabahith al-Mashriqiyya*, writing *Kitab al-Jauhar al-Fard* to refute it, but accepted it again in later works such as *Mafatih al-Ghayb*[4](https://al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-volume-1-book-3/chapter-32-fakhr-al-razi). Late in his intellectual life he espoused a dualistic position denying that the soul is in any sense a material body, concurring broadly with Avicenna against the theologians' materialism; in his last work, *al-Matalib*, he sets out a comprehensive case for the theologians' materialism before critiquing it[10](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/arabic-sciences-and-philosophy/article/alrazi-on-the-theologians-materialism/9DB1AE4DABD30F75A123A782893BB7C9).
## Exegesis: Mafatih al-Ghayb
* Mafatih al-Ghayb*, popularly known as *al-Tafsir al-kabir*, is one of the most extensive Qur'an commentaries, running to eight volumes in quarto and 32 volumes in the modern printing; it occupied him to the end of his life and was completed by a pupil[3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy) • [1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/). An English translation describes *The Great Exegesis* as a compendium not only of Qur'anic sciences and meanings but also of Arabic linguistics, comparative jurisprudence, Aristotelian and [Islamic philosophy](https://www.edgepedia.org/islamic-philosophy), dialectic theology, and the spirituality of Sufism[11](https://archive.org/details/the-great-exegesis-tafsir-al-kabir-volume-i-the-fatiha).
## How it compares: al-Ghazali, Ibn Sina, and later critics
Al-Razi follows his fellow Ash'arite al-Ghazali (d. 1111) in targeting Ibn Sina as the outstanding exponent of falsafa, but he does not go along with al-Ghazali's idea that the falasifa were to be condemned wholesale[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/). Close textual analysis of his *Mulakhkhas* shows that he privileges anti-Avicennan perspectives, particularly regarding divine agency and the creation of the universe, marking a departure from Ibn Sina's philosophy[12](https://brill.com/view/journals/iit/1/1/article-p71_4.pdf).
The person who did the most to defend Ibn Sina, and philosophy in general, against al-Razi's criticisms was [Nasir al-Din al-Tusi](https://www.edgepedia.org/nasir-al-din-al-tusi), who wrote a commentary on the *Kitab al-isharat* largely as a refutation of al-Razi's opinions, and a *Talkhis al-muhassal* criticizing the *Muhassal al-afkar*[3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy). Later, [Ibn Taymiyya](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-taymiyya) made extensive references to Ibn Rushd in his theological rebuttals against al-Razi's incorporealism, particularly in his refutation of Ash'arite theology[13](https://www.academia.edu/37824592/_Ibn_Taymiyya_s_Use_of_Ibn_Rushd_to_Refute_the_Incorporealism_of_Fakhr_al_Din_al_Razi_in_Islamic_Philosophy_from_the_12th_to_the_14th_Century_ed_Abdelkader_al_Ghouz_Bonn_University_Press_V_and_R_unipress_2018_469_491).
**Contested reputation.** The relentlessness with which al-Razi used his dialectical method earned him among philosophers the sobriquet Imam al-Mushakkikin (Leader of the Doubters)[3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy).
## By the numbers
- Nearly 100 known writings, given as "about 100 books" by Britannica[4](https://al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-volume-1-book-3/chapter-32-fakhr-al-razi) • [6](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fakhr-ad-Din-ar-Razi).
- *Mafatih al-Ghayb*: 32 volumes in the modern printing, eight in quarto[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/) • [3](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy).
- *al-Mabahith al-mashriqiyya*: more than 1,200 printed pages; *al-Matalib al-'Aliya*: nine books in five volumes[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
- Career span under two dynastic patrons, in three phases, from about two decades with the Khwarazm-Shahs to the Ghurid years from 1197[1](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/).
- Reported (as a saying, not verified): 300 students on foot wherever he rode, 1,000 mules carrying his possessions between cities[6](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fakhr-ad-Din-ar-Razi).
## References
1. [Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/al-din-al-razi/)
2. [From al-Ghazali to al-Razi: 6th/12th Century Developments in Muslim Philosophical Theology, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy 15.1 (2005)](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/arabic-sciences-and-philosophy/article/abs/from-alghazali-to-alrazi-6th12th-century-developments-in-muslim-philosophical-theology/78BA2498C60BAD551F35CD1C641A7726)
3. [al-Razi, Fakhr al-Din (1149–1209), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy](https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/al-razi-fakhr-al-din-1149-1209/v-1/sections/theology-and-philosophy)
4. [Chapter 32: Fakhr al-Razi, A History of Muslim Philosophy, Volume 1](https://al-islam.org/history-muslim-philosophy-volume-1-book-3/chapter-32-fakhr-al-razi)
5. [The Great Exegesis, Volume II, Islamic Texts Society](https://its.org.uk/catalogue/the-great-exegesis-volume-ii/)
6. [Fakhr ad-Din ar-Razi, Britannica](https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fakhr-ad-Din-ar-Razi)
7. [Zamboni, Quaderni di Meykhane XV/1 (2025), on al-Matalib al-'Aliya manuscripts](http://meykhane.altervista.org/7._Zamboni_DEF._QMEY_15-1_special_issue.pdf)
8. [Reason and Revelation in Fakhr al-Din al-Razi and the Ash'ari Tradition](https://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Fakhr_al_Din_al.pdf)
9. [Language and Reason in Islamic Thought, De Gruyter Brill](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783112205983/html)
10. [Al-Razi on the Theologians' Materialism, Arabic Sciences and Philosophy](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/arabic-sciences-and-philosophy/article/alrazi-on-the-theologians-materialism/9DB1AE4DABD30F75A123A782893BB7C9)
11. [The Great Exegesis: Tafsir al-Kabir, Volume I (The Fatiha)](https://archive.org/details/the-great-exegesis-tafsir-al-kabir-volume-i-the-fatiha)
12. [The Unambiguous Truth: Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on Philosophy and the 'Truth' in His Mulakhkhas, Islamic Intellectual Thought (Brill)](https://brill.com/view/journals/iit/1/1/article-p71_4.pdf)
13. [Ibn Taymiyya's Use of Ibn Rushd to Refute the Incorporealism of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi (2018)](https://www.academia.edu/37824592/_Ibn_Taymiyya_s_Use_of_Ibn_Rushd_to_Refute_the_Incorporealism_of_Fakhr_al_Din_al_Razi_in_Islamic_Philosophy_from_the_12th_to_the_14th_Century_ed_Abdelkader_al_Ghouz_Bonn_University_Press_V_and_R_unipress_2018_469_491)
14. [A Comprehensive, Annotated, and Indexed Bibliography of the Modern Scholarship on Fakhr al-Din al-Razi, Brill](https://brill.com/display/title/62354)
15. [Translating Enchantment: Journeys of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi's Book of the Hidden Secret, University of Washington (October 2025)](https://melc.washington.edu/news/2025/10/14/translating-enchantment-journeys-fakhr-al-din-al-razis-d-1210-book-hidden-secret)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Religious biographies › Jewish, Islamic, and Dharmic religious leaders › Islamic religious leaders and scholars › Sunni imams and classical Islamic scholars › Sunni theologians (kalam)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 10, 2026; Oct 11, 2026 · Last review: Oct 10, 2026*
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