POST-SAMARQANDI OTTOMAN ARGUMENTATION THEORY:THE QUESTIONER IN SAÇAKLIZADE

Abstract

After more than two centuries of the diffusion of argumentative discourseinto theology, philosophy, law, grammar and poetry in the classicalperiod (tenth through twelfth centuries), Shams al-Din Samarqandi claimed tohave discovered the science of “âdâb al-bahs.” Ottoman intellectuals contri—buted individual treatises on the subject. Adâb al-bahth as theoretical genreof argumentation theory carried on until the late nineteenth century. LarryMiller argues that none of the post-classical writings went much beyond the rules that Samarqandi gave in the Risala and Qustas. This article specificallyquestions Miller’s claim.