AshʿarĪ, Al-
ASHʿARĪ, AL- (AH 260–324/874–935 CE), more fully Abū al- Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Abī Bishr Isḥāq; Muslim theologian and founder of the tradition of Muslim theology known as Ashʿarīyah. He is commonly referred to by his followers as the Master, Abū al-Ḥasan, and he is sometimes referred to by his opponents as Ibn Abī Bishr.
Life and Works
Very little is known concerning al-Ashʿarī's life. He was for some time an adherent of the Muʿtazilī school and a disciple of al-Jubbāʾī (d. 915), but at some point, probably prior to 909, he rejected the teachings of the Muʿtazilah in favor of the more conservative dogma of the traditionalists (ahl al-ḥadīth). He renounced the Muʿtazilah publicly during the Friday prayer service in the congregational mosque of Basra and thereafter wrote extensively against the doctrines of his erstwhile fellows and in defense of his new position, for which he had become quite well known by 912/3. Sometime later he moved to Baghdad, where he remained until the end of his life.
Some hundred works are attributed to al-Ashʿarī in the medieval sources (see McCarthy, 1953, pp. 211–230), of which no more than the following six seem to have survived:
- Maqālāt al-Islāmīyīn (Theological Opinions of the Muslims) is a lengthy work setting forth the diverse opinions of Muslim religious thinkers; its two separate (and largely repetitious) parts likely represent two originally distinct works, the first of which may have been substantially complete prior to al-Ashʿarī's conversion.
- His
