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Abū ʿImrān Muways b. ʿImrān was a Muʿtazilī scholar from Baṣra who flourished in the late second/eighth century and first half of the third/ninth. He studied with the theologian al-Naẓẓām (d. before 235/850), and was known for his close friendship with the littérateur al-Jāḥiẓ (d. 255/868). Several mediaeval sources give his first name, wrongly, as Mūsā, Muʾnis, or Yūnus. Muways was known for his legal theory concerning God’s delegation (tafwīḍ) to the scholars of the Muslim community, allowing them to determine by means of ijtihād (independent reasoning) the necessary laws and…

Abū Saʿīd al-Ḥasan b. Yasār al-Baṣrī (21–110/642–728), famously known as al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī or al-Ḥasan b. Abī l-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī, was one of the most celebrated Successors (tābiʿūn) of the Companions of Muḥammad and enjoyed an acclaimed scholarly career and an even more remarkable posthumous legacy in Islamic scholarship. Al-Ḥasan was probably born in Medina. His mother was said to have been a maid to Umm Salama, one of Muḥammad’s widows. His father, who hailed from southern Iraq, was captured and sold into slavery at the time of the conquests…

Abū Khalīfa al-Faḍl b. al-Ḥubāb b. Muḥammad b. Shuʿayb al-Jumaḥī (206–305/821–917) was a well-known ḥadīth scholar and littérateur from Basra. He was renowned for his sense of humour and self-deprecation, and his company was often sought by governors and scholars, especially over meals. He loved poetry and is frequently cited in mediaeval books as having recited or transmitted many lines of poetry by pre-Islamic and early Islamic poets. He also developed and was known for speaking in rhymed prose (sajaʿ). According to some sources, al-Faḍl b. al-Ḥubāb was blind, but he pro…

Abū Bishr Ḥawshab b. Muslim al-Thaqafī al-Ṭayālisī (d. 131/749) was a traditionist and ascetic from Basra, a disciple of al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110/728), and a companion of the ascetic ʿAbd al-Wāḥid b. Zayd (d. after 150/767). Ḥawshab was a client (mawlā) of the famous Umayyad governor of Iraq, al-Ḥajjāj b. Yūsuf al-Thaqafī (d. 95/714), hence his nisba al-Thaqafī. Ḥawshab's profession was selling ṭaylasāns (scarf-like wraps worn around the head and neck) in the market of Basra, hence his other nisba, al-Ṭayālisī. He was also known as a storyteller (qāṣṣ), though he made a name for h…

Aḥmad b. Ḥābiṭ (or Ḥāʾiṭ, or Khābiṭ) (d. 227–232/842–847) was a theologian from Basra, who is considered to have been a Muʿtazilī. He started his career as a student of the Muʿtazilī theologian al-Naẓẓām (d. before 235/850), but Ibn Ḥābiṭ's views on three issues distinguished—and distanced—him from his mentor and from mainstream Muʿtazilī theology. He asserted the divinity of Jesus (ʿĪsā) and the reincarnation of human and animal souls, and he held that animals, like humans, have prophets. Concerning the divinity of Jesus, Ibn Ḥābiṭ held that it was Jesus, not God, who cr…

Abū Ḥafṣ al-Miṣrī (fl. fourth/tenth century), was a Muʿtazilī theologian. His full name is not known. Our knowledge of him is derived principally from a few Muʿtazilī sources and can be summarised as follows. He studied with the Muʿtazilī theologian Abū Bakr b. al-Ikhshīd (d. 326/938) in Baghdad. After that, he lived for some time in Basra, where he taught the views of the school of Ibn al-Ikhshīd; among his students there were Abū al-ʿAlāʾ al-Māzinī and Abū ʿAbdallāh al-Ḥabashī. The latter became…

ʿAbdallāh b. ʿAwn b. Arṭabān al-Muzanī (c. 66–151/686–768) was a prominent proto-Sunnī traditionist from Basra and is considered one of the founding fathers of Sunnī Islam. Reports suggest that he was born in the year 66/686, though the date might be later, given the many attempts in early Islam to push back a figure’s date of birth in order to validate his transmission of ḥadīth from individuals he otherwise could not have met. Ibn ʿAwn’s education began in his hometown of Basra, with notable scholars such as the semi-legendary al-Ḥasan al-Baṣrī (d. 110/728…

Abū ʿUthman ʿAmr b. ʿUbayd b. Bāb (c. 80–144/699–761) was a traditionist and theologian who became famous as one of the founders of the Muʿtazilite school of theology. His family originated in the region of Kabul, in Afghanistan; his grandfather Bāb was captured there during the Islamic conquests and was relocated to Basra. ʿAmr's father worked as a weaver but also served in the Umayyad army in Iraq. ʿAmr followed his father in his profession as a weaver, and he joined the teaching circle of the cel…

Abū Sahl ʿ Abbād b. Salmān (or Sulaymān) b. ʿAlī al-Ṣaymarī was a Muʿtazilī theologian who flourished in Basra in the third/ninth century. His nisba, al-Ṣaymarī, refers to his original home-town of Ṣaymara, near Khūzistān in the Jibāl region. ʿAbbād studied with Hishām al-Fuwaṭī (d. before 218/833), and his theology was part of a trend, started by his teacher, that was later marginalised in Muʿtazilī thought, especially that of Basra. His views can be reconstructed only on the basis of refutations of them in Sunnī and even some Muʿtazilī sources. ʿAbbād categorically rejected anthrop…

Abū l-Hudhayl Muḥammad b. al-Hudhayl b. ʿUbaydallāh b. Makḥūl al-ʿAbdī al-ʿAllāf (c. 135–c. 227/752–842) was one of the most influential early Muʿtazilī theologians. He was born in Basra as a Persian mawlā (client) of the ʿAbd al-Qays clan and was introduced to Muʿtazilism as a student of several disciples of Wāṣil b. ʿAṭāʾ (d. 131/748), the founder of the Muʿtazilī movement. He may have also studied with his notable older contemporary Ḍirār b. ʿAmr (d. 200/815). During his lifetime, Abū l-Hudhayl was surpassed in popular as well as official appeal by several contempora…

The Ibn ʿAsākir family (Banū ʿAsākir) was prominent in mediaeval Damascus. It produced several notable Shāfiʿī scholars who occupied prestigious scholarly and judicial positions in Damascus and Syria and shaped intellectual and religious life there between the fifth/eleventh and eighth/fourteenth centuries. Even though each male member of the family was known by the name of Ibn ʿAsākir (along with an honorific peculiar to each), the reference when used on its own in mediaeval literature refers inva…

Abū Saʿd al-Muḥassin b. Muḥammad b. Karāma al-Jishumī, known as al-Ḥākim al-Jishumī (d. 494/1101), was a Muʿtazilī theologian, Ḥanafī jurist, and exegete of the Qurʾān. Al-Jishumī was born in 413/1022 in the town of Jishum, located near Bayhaq in western Khurāsān. He came from a family that traced its lineage back to ʿAlī b. Abī Ṭālib (d. 40/661) through his son Muḥammad b. al-Ḥanafiyya (d. 81/700). Al-Jishumī started his religious education in Jishum and moved around Khurāsān to further his command of several fields. He studied ḥadīth and Muʿtazilī theology with Abū Ḥāmid al-Naj…

Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Ḥafṣ, known as Ibn al-Khallāl al-Baṣrī (b. before 300/912, d. after 377/988), was a Muʿtazilī scholar and judge. He was born in Basra, where he probably began his education in Muʿtazilī thought under the theologian Muḥammad b. ʿUmar al-Ṣaymarī (d. 315/927). He then moved to Baghdad and became the disciple of Ibn al-Ikhshīd (d. 326/938), who was the leading figure of one of the branches of the Muʿtazila in the city that came to be known as the Ikhsīdid branch. In addition to theology, Ibn al-Khallāl studied Shāfiʿī law (fiqh) with Ibn al-Ikhshīd and became ch…