Ibn Mattawayh

Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn Mattawayh^[1] (fl. 1025) was a Muʿtazilī theologian and philosopher of the Bahshamī school.^[2] His dates of birth and death are unknown. He studied in Ray under Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār, who died in 1025. He is not associated with any place other than Ray. He may be the Muʿtazilī theologian called Sibṭ Mattūya who is mocked in a poem by ʿAbd al-Jabbār's patron, the vizier al-Ṣāḥib ibn ʿAbbād, who died in 995.^[3] His datable writings were written not long after ʿAbd al-Jabbār's death.^[4]

Ibn Mattawayh's two surviving works are:

• Kitāb al-Majmūʿ fiʾl-muḥīṭ biʾl-taklīf, a paraphrase with commentary and critique of his teacher's Kitāb al-muḥīṭ biʾl-taklīf^[3]
• Kitāb al-Tadhkira, a two-volume treatise on philosophy, the first part dealing with accidents, substances and other matters 'physical' and the second part dealing with matters 'biological'^[5]

In addition, two lost works by Ibn Mattawayh are known. His Kitāb al-Kifāya, quoted by Ibn Abiʾl-Ḥadīd, argues for the ʿiṣma (impeccability) of ʿAlī and his superiority over Abū Bakr, but stops short of affirming the Shīʿī doctrine of the imāmate.^[6] His Kitāb al-Taḥrīr is quoted by Maḥmūd ibn al-Malāḥimī.^[3]

There is an anonymous commentary on Ibn Mattawayh's Tadhkira. The surviving manuscript copy indicates that the commentary was completed in 1175.^[7] The commentary, which is untitled, is much longer than the original work.^[8]