Trust, Trusting and Trustworthiness in Ethical Discourse

Abstract In literary genres concerned with an ethics of character, scholars in the third through fifth/ninth eleventh century wrote about social trust. this article I examine ethical thinking four such scholars: Ibn Abī l-Dunyā (d. 281/894), al-Kharāʾiṭī 327/939), al-Māwardī 450/1058), and al-Ghazālī 505/1111). Locating conceptualisations concerns related to trust mistrust, trustworthiness, trusting misplaced trust, a semantic field including vocabulary amāna, tawakkul, thiqa ḥusn al-ẓann , identify discuss some these concerns, analyse what ways scholars’ respective issues are similar, how they differ from each other. While explicitly conceptualise value concept amāna juxtaposed spiritual aspects is more implicit other scholars.