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Basran Mutazilite Theology: Abu Ali Muhammad b. Khallad's Kitab al-Usul and Its Reception. Edited by Camilla Adang; Wilferd Madelung; and Sabine Schmidtke. Islamic History and Civilization, vol. 85. Leiden: Brill, 2011. Pp. iv + 8 + 306 (Arabic). $170.
The Mu'tazila based their theological system on five principles {usül al-khamsa): God's unity and uniqueness {tawhid), God's justice {eadl), the promise and the threat {al-waed wa-l-waeid), the intermediate position {al-manzila bayna al-manzilatayn), and commanding good and refraining from evil {al-amr bi-1-ma'rüf wal-nahy can al-munkar). This well-known formulation, attributed to Abü 1-Hudhayl (d. 226/841), is attested in many texts. Yet its detailed exposition had to await the discovery and publication of Mu'tazil! texts following the Egyptian expedition to Yemen in the 1950s. Of these, the best known is cAbd al-Jabbär's Mughni where these five principles are collapsed into the first two principles of tawhid and cadl. In contrast the Sharh Usül al-khamsa, published in 1965 by cAbd al-Karim 'Uthmän and attributed to cAbd al-Jabbär (d. 415/1025), preserves the five-principle framework. In his "Les usül al-khamsa du Qäd! cAbd al-Gabbär et leurs commentaires" {Annales Islamologiques 15 [1979]), Daniel Gimaret challenged the attribution to cAbd al-Jabbär and showed that the Sharh was actually TaHiq sharh. Usui al-khamsa by cAbd al-Jabbär's Zayd! student Mânkdïm Shashdïv (d. 425/1034). Gimaret clarified the obscurities surrounding works on the five principles, identifying authors, titles, and manuscripts as well as textual and teacher-student relationships, beginning with Usül al-khamsa of Ibn Khalläd (fl. ca. 330/941), a disciple of Abü Häshim al-Jubbä'I (d. 321/933), and continuing to al-Qäsim al-Muhalli's commentary on Mânkdïm's TaHiq, written between 700-50/1300-49. Gimaret also referred to the "longish" commentary on Ibn Khalläd's Usül entitled...