Ashari, Abu Al-Hasan Ali Al-

Ashari, Abu Al-Hasan Ali Al-

 

Born 873 or 874 in Basra; died 935 or 941 in Baghdad. Arab theologian, founder of kalam, a Sunni scholastic theology of Islam.

Al-Ashari was an adherent of the Mutazilite sect until he was about 40; then he broke away and denounced it. His teachings are based on divine predestination and the eternal nature of the Koran.

WORKS

“Kitab makalat al-islamin (Treatises on Islam).” Die Dogmatischen Lehren der Anhänger des Islam. Wiesbaden, 1963. (Vol. 1 of Bibliotheca Islamica.)

REFERENCE

Petrushevskii, I. P. Islam v Irane v VII-XV vekakh. [Leningrad,] 1966. Pages 214–20.