Note 47:2 — PART II. Greek Dualism.

The Mu‘tazilas belonged to various nationalities, and many of them were Persians either by descent or domicile. Wāṣil Ibn ‘Atā—the reported founder of the sect—was a Persian (Browne, Lit. His., Vol I, p. 281). Von Kremer, however, traces their origin to the theological controversies of the Umayyad period. Mu‘tazilaism was not an essentially Persian movement; but it is true, as Prof. Browne observes (Lit. His., Vol. I, p. 283) that Shi‘ite and Qādarī tenets, indeed, often went together, and the Shi‘ite doctrine current in Persia at the present day is in many respects Mu‘tazilite, while Ḥasan Al-Ash‘arī, the great opponent of the Mu‘tazilite, is by the Shi‘ites held in horror. It may also be added that some of the greater representatives of the Mu‘tazila opinion were Shi‘as by religion, e.g. Abu ’l-Hudhail (Al-Mu‘tazila, ed. by T. W. Arnold, p. 28). On the other hand many of the followers of Al-Ash‘ari were Persians (See extracts from Ibn ‘Asākir ed. Mehren), so that it does not seem to be quite justifiable to describe the Ash‘arite mode of thought as a purely semitic movement.