Rukn al-dīn Maḥmūd ibn Muḥammad al-Malāḥimī al-Khuwārazmī (died 19 October 1141) was a Khwārazmian

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

ic theologian of the Muʿtazilī and

Ḥanafī The Hanafi school or Hanafism is the oldest and largest school of Islamic jurisprudence out of the four schools within Sunni Islam. It developed from the teachings of the jurist and theologian Abu Hanifa (), who systemised the use of reasoning ...

schools. He wrote six works known by title, but of these only one is completely preserved and two partially; the rest are lost. Ibn al-Malāḥimī was born before 1090 in Khwārazm. He was probably active in Gurgānj, the capital of Khwārazm. In his time, Muʿtazila was popular among the Khwārazmian

, whereas it had been suppressed in most Muslim countries. He initially belonged to the

Bahshamiyya Bahshamiyya (, also known as "Ba Hashimiyya") was a Mu'tazili-influenced school of thought, rivaling the school of Abd al-Jabbar ibn Ahmad, based primarily on the earlier teaching of Abu Hashim al-Jubba'i, the son of Abu 'Ali Muhammad al-Jubba'i. ...

branch of Muʿtazila, but adopted the theology of Abu ʾl-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī after its introduction to Khwārazm. He helped turn the school of al-Baṣrī into a serious rival to the Bahshamiyya in Khwārazm. He taught theology to

al-Zamakhsharī Abu al-Qasim Mahmud ibn Umar al-Zamakhshari (; 1074 –1143) was a medieval Muslim scholar of Iranian descent. He travelled to Mecca and settled there for five years and has been known since then as 'Jar Allah' (God's Neighbor). He was a Mu'tazil ...

, who in turn instructed him in Qurʾanic exegesis. Ibn al-Malāḥimī was a staunch opponent of

metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that examines the basic structure of reality. It is traditionally seen as the study of mind-independent features of the world, but some theorists view it as an inquiry into the conceptual framework of ...

. He saw in the teachings of

Ibn Sīnā Ibn Sina ( – 22 June 1037), commonly known in the West as Avicenna ( ), was a preeminent philosopher and physician of the Muslim world, flourishing during the Islamic Golden Age, serving in the courts of various Iranian rulers. He is oft ...

a dilution of Islam's prophetic character.

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

, in his view, was the paradigm of a religion of divine revelation and prophecy compromised by

Greek philosophy Ancient Greek philosophy arose in the 6th century BC. Philosophy was used to make sense of the world using reason. It dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including astronomy, epistemology, mathematics, political philosophy, ethics, metaphysic ...

. He wrote a compendium of the Muʿtazilī theology of al-Baṣrī, ''The Reliable Book on the Principles of Religion'', but only the first section and part of another have been preserved. He wrote an abridged version of his compendium, ''The Excellent Book on the Principles of Religion'', completed in December 1137. This work survives complete. In it he mentions two other works of his that are not known to have been preserved. Between 1137 and 1141, Ibn al-Malāḥimī completed a third book, ''The Gift to the Theologians Concerning the Refutation of the Philosophers'', a comprehensive attack on

Hellenistic philosophy Hellenistic philosophy is Ancient Greek philosophy corresponding to the Hellenistic period in Ancient Greece, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the Battle of Actium in 31 BC. The dominant schools of this period were the Stoics, the ...

, especially those used in the teachings of Ibn Sīnā. For al-Mālahimī, excessive use of Hellenistic philosophy could risk being misused to justify false beliefs, as the Christians do with the

Trinity The Trinity (, from 'threefold') is the Christian doctrine concerning the nature of God, which defines one God existing in three, , consubstantial divine persons: God the Father, God the Son (Jesus Christ) and God the Holy Spirit, thr ...

and

Incarnation Incarnation literally means ''embodied in flesh'' or ''taking on flesh''. It is the Conception (biology), conception and the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form or an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic form of a god. It is used t ...

. This work once circulated as far afield as

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

, but is now lost. His last work, ''The Abstract'', is an abridged version of a work by al-Baṣrī on legal method completed by June 1140. It survives in a single incomplete manuscript. __NOTOC__

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* * {{Authority control 11th-century births 1141 deaths Mu'tazilites 12th-century Arabic-language writers Hanafis