Personal piety:
paradigm-tracing in nature (cf. Eliade)
kerygmatic
Qur'an, shar`ism (even disciplining Shi`i Ghulat extremism)
Shi`ism as kerygmatic esotericism: nass designation of Imam's successor, chiliasm
Isma`ili piety: esotericism and hierarchy
Jama`ism, the piety of solidarity
 Mu`tazili moralism, activism
Hadith folk: anti-revolutionary acceptance of  ruler and community (Eternal Qur'an)
Ibn-Hanbal and Hadith populism (vs. Mu`tazili inquisition, support of lower classes)
mystical
early Sufis, personal discipline, personal freedom; risks of universalism
on reading mystical texts: Bistami, Hallaj
Sufi analysis of the unconscious

Speculation: Falsafah and Kalam
natural science heritage
alchemy
medicine and astrology
philosophy as vision of the world
Faylasufs' notion of God
Falsafah and Islamic revelation
Socratic and Abrahamic faith: dialog of the two Razis
al-Farabi: religion as CliffNotes® on philosophy for the masses
Kalam (dialectical theology) and falsafah: 5 principles of Mu`tazila (p. 438), al-Ash`ari's fideism

Adab: Arabic literary culture
breach with older traditions: Arabism, Yemen, Hellenism, Iranism
the cultivated literary courtier (adib)
what you should know: intellectual and traditional sciences (`aqli, naqli)
poetry old and new, rhyming prose (saj`)
arts of luxury

Dissipation of the Absolutist tradition
al-Ma'mun, 4th fitnah
Turkish praetorian guards, Qarmati (Isma`ili) revolt
decline of irrigation
Fatimis and Samanis
breakup of `Abbasid empire