ABSTRACT
Al-Qa¯d. ı¯ Abu¯ l-H. asan Abd al-Jabba¯r ibn Ah. mad al-Hamadha¯nı¯ al-Asada¯ba¯dı¯ (d. 1025) a prominent judge in Rayy, Iran (now a southern suburb of Tehran) during the Bu¯yid period, is today remembered above all as an eminent theologian of the Mu tazilı¯ school. His writings record otherwise lost excerpts of the early Mu tazila and reflect his original contributions on a wide range of topics, not only theological but also jurisprudential, exegetical and apologetical. The last term in his name represents his place of birth (probably in the mid-930s): Asada¯ba¯d, a small town (also the birthplace of Jama¯l al-Dı¯n al-Afgha¯nı¯) known for its honey production in a mountain valley in western Iran, to the southwest of Hamadha¯n. The first term represents his profession later in life, when he worked as a judge under the vizier al-S. a¯h. ib ibn Abba¯d (d. 995), during the reigns of the Bu¯yid princes Mu ayyid al-Dawla (r. 977-84) and Fakhr al-Dawla (r. 984-97) in Rayy.
