Theological Dialectic (Jadal)

Abstract

Around the end of the ninth century, Ibn al-Rīwandī wrote a book entitled Adab al-jadal. About a generation or so later, Abū l-Qāsim al-Balkhī, known as al-Kaʿbī, also wrote a book on jadal in which he purported to correct errors that Ibn al-Rīwandī made in his work. This work was in turn refuted by al-Ashʿarī, the great theologian, who took up Ibn al-Rīwandī’s cause against al-Kaʿbī’s criticisms. So too another great theologian, al-Māturīdī defended Ibn al-Rīwandī. But of the works just mentioned, none survives.