Abstract

The recent publication of a complete edition of Abū l-Qāsim al-Balḫī's (d. 319/931) Maqālāt ahl al-qibla opens new perspectives on the history of the Islamic doxographical tradition. Through a comparison of al-Balḫī's Maqālāt with Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ašʿarī's (d. 324/935-6) Maqālāt al-islāmiyyīn wa-ḫtilāf al-muṣallīn, this article demonstrate that al-Balḫī is the direct source of al-Ašʿarī's chapter on the Šīʿa. This conclusion hence allows us to analyze the evolution of the maqālāt genre during the 3rd/9th-4th/10th centuries, most notably its progressive assimilation to a distinctively heresiographical practice.