Al-kindī and the Mu‘tazila: Divine Attributes, Creation and Freedom

The ‘Abb®sid caliphs al-Ma’m‚n and al-Mu‘ta◊im, who between them reigned from 198 to 227 A.H. (813-842 A.D.) are best-known to historians of philosophy for two things. First, they supported a massive translation project that had already begun in the previous century with al-Ma’m‚n’s grandfather, al-Man◊‚r. The result was that many of the most important works of Greek philosophy and science were rendered into Arabic.1 Second, they made into official state dogma the theological views of the Mu‘tazila, who as a result became the dominant school of ‘ilm al-kal®m in the first half of the 3rd/9th-century. Before their influence waned during the reign of al-Mutawakkil (died 247/861), the Mu‘tazila saw their teaching on the createdness of the Qur’®n enforced in the infamous miΩna, and Mu‘tazilism remained a vibrant force well into the next century.2 It is thus natural to ask how these two policies might have interacted with one another. What impact, if any, did Mu‘tazilite ideas have on those who carried out the translation project, and what impact did the translations have on the Mu‘tazila?