Muʿtazilī Discussions of the Abrogation of the Torah Ibn Ḫallād (4th/10th century) and His Commentators

Abstract Abū ʿAlī Muḥammad b. Ḫallād al-Baṣrī, a distinguished disciple of Abū Hāšim al-Ǧubbāʾī (d. 321/933), wrote a Kitāb al-Uṣūl together with an autocommentary, both of which are lost. Substantial portions of his Kitāb al-Uṣūl, though, have reached us embedded in two works by later Muʿtazilī authors, viz. the Kitāb Ziyādāt Šarḥ al-uṣūl by the Zaydī Imām al-Nāṭiq bi-l-Ḥaqq Abū Ṭālib Yaḥyā b. al-Ḥusayn b. Hārūn al-Buṭḥānī (d. 424/1033) and a second supercommentary or taʿlīq that was apparently composed by the Zaydī author ʿAlī b. al-Ḥusayn b. Muḥammad al-Daylamī Siyāh [Šāh] Sarīǧān [Sarbīǧān]. Both works provide valuable and supplementary information on Ibn Ḫallād's original Kitāb al-Uṣūl/Šarḥ al-uṣūl. By way of example, the section on the abrogation of the Torah from the two commentaries is offered in a critical edition, and the similarities and discrepancies between the two works are discussed in detail on the basis of this section. The issue discussed here is one of the main arguments in polemics between Muslims and Jews.