The importance of Zaydī sources for historical research on Muʿtazilī theology is generally acknowledged since the spectacular discoveries of unique manuscripts in Yemen in the 1950s. Yet the knowledge transfer and adoption of Muʿtazilī thought by the Yemeni Zaydiyya still remain an understudied field. Al-Ḥasan ar-Raṣṣāṣ (d. 1188) was one of the main promoters of Muʿtazilism in 6th/12th century Yemen. His works mainly focus on natural philosophy and include a systematic treatise on causality which is comprehensively examined and critically edited in this volume. The present study gives insight into a fascinating chapter of Islamic intellectual history and offers the first analysis of a Muʿtazilī theory of causality.

Link: Brill

Bibliographical reference:

• Thiele, Jan. 2011. Kausalität in der Mu'tazilitischen Kosmologie: Das Kitāb al-Mu'aththirāt wa-miftāḥ al-muškilāt des Zayditen al-Ḥasan ar-Raṣṣāṣ (st. 584/1188), Leiden: Brill.