SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This article presents, for the first time, a full sermon attributed to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 606/1210) from his tenure under the Ghūrid sultans (circa 591/1195 to 602/1206). During this period, al-Rāzī played a central role in the Ghūrids’ transition from Karrāmism to a mainstream Sunni identity aligned with the Abbasid caliphate. As the only known example of his oratory, the sermon offers rare insight into his public role in spearheading their project of religious and cultural self-fashioning. It advances Shāfiʿī jurisprudence and Ashʿarī theology while articulating a consequentialist ethical framework rooted in the concept of benefit (maṣlaḥa). The article contextualises the sermon within the intellectual and political landscape of the Ghūrid era, examines its style and rhetorical strategies, and offers a critical edition of the Arabic text based on the two extant manuscript copies.