A Twelfth-Century Controversy on Mānkdīm’s Taʿlīq Sharḥ al-Uṣūl al-khamsa: Zaydis Debating Accidents, Attributes, and Optics

Abstract In this article, we present a so far unstudied epistolary exchange between two sixth/twelfth-century Zaydis from Yemen on Mānkdīm’s famous Taʿlīq Sharḥ al-Uṣūl al-khamsa . In the text, which survives in a unique manuscript, al-Ḥasan al-ʿUdharī raises objections against passages from the proof for the createdness of the world and from the chapter on beatific vision in the Taʿlīq , touching upon issues related to accidents ( aʿrāḍ ), attributes ( ṣifāt ), and sense-perception. Al-ʿUdharī’s objections are refuted by al-Ḥasan al-Raṣṣāṣ, who was possibly his teacher. The debate is of interest for studying the sixth/twelfth-century Zaydi reception of Muʿtazili teachings, as is evident, but it also serves as a valuable testimony to the Zaydi engagement with other intellectual traditions, including proponents of Greek-derived logic and Ashʿari arguments against Muʿtazili theories. Our article first situates the text and its arguments in its historical and intellectual context, then offers an English translation, and concludes with a critical edition of the epistolary exchange.