3 The State of Theology during al-Māturīdī’s Lifetime
Abstract
Abū Muṭīʿ Makḥūl b. Faḍl al-Nasafī was a prolific author and also the progenitor of a scholarly family of intellectual distinction. His son, Muḥammad b. Makḥūl, did not reach the prominence of his father, but still possessed enough standing among the Ḥanafites to be dignified by his own entry in Ibn Abī l-Wafā's biographical dictionary. The same was true of Aḥmad al-Makḥūī, a grandson, as well as Aḥmad's nephew Abu l-Maʿālī Muʿtamad, who also bore the nisba al-Nasafī al-Makḥūlī. Three generations later, Abū l-Muʿin al-Nasafī himself emerged from this family, a scholar who could certainly be described as the most brilliant and influential theologian of the early Maturīdīya. Makḥūl himself, however, despite this key position, hardly left a trace in the biographical literature. Keywords: Abū l-Muʿin al-Nasafī; Al-Māturīdī; biographical literature; Islamic heresiography; theology