The Moslem theologian Abu al-Hasan Ali al-Ashari (ca. 873-935) defended the basic Islamic belief that the Koran is the revealed book of God and that upon it and the Traditions of the Prophet the religion of Islam must be based.

Al-Ashari seems to have been born in Basra, in present-day Iraq. As was the custom, his education commenced with long exposure to the Koran and the collected Traditions of the Prophet and his Companions. Having mastered these, al-Ashari became a student of the head of the Mutazilite, or rationalist, school in Basra; eventually he would have succeeded his master had he not experienced a reconversion to the traditionalist position of Islam. This crisis in his life is said to have occurred in 912-913, and al-Ashari gave public notice of his intention to attack the Mutazilites from the pulpit. He spent the remainder of his life composing theological polemics...