Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Musa al-Nawbakhti
Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b Mūsā an-Nawbakhtī was a leading Shī'ī Muslim theologian and philosopher in the first half of the 10th century of Persian descent. The Nawbakhtī family boasted a number of scholars famous at the Abbāsid court of Hārūn al-Rashīd. Al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsa is best known for his book about the Shi'a sects titled Firaq al-Shi'a, which significantly relies on Hisham ibn al-Hakam's earlier work Ikhtilaf al-nass fi l-imama.
Life
Abū Muḥammad al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsa al-Nawbakhti was the nephew of the theologian philosopher Abū Sahl ibn Nawbakht. Among his fellow translators of books of philosophy were Abū 'Uthmān al-Dimashqi, Isḥāq ibn Ḥunayn, and Thābit ibn Qurra. It was claimed al-Ḥasan ibn Mūsa was both Muʿtazila and Shī’a for the Nawbakht family were known followers of ‘Alī.He transcribed a large number of books and wrote books on theology, philosophy and other topics.
His book Firaq aš-šī'a is the earliest surviving complete work on the Shiite sects, and the oldest text from an imamitic perspective on the differences between the various Islamic sects and their origins within Shiism.
Works
- ''ar-Radd 'alā' l-ġulāt''
Titles listed in al-Fihrist">Ibn al-Nadim">al-Fihrist
- Kitāb al-arā' wa-'d-diyānāt ; Doctrines and Religions
- Kitāb ar-radd alā' aṣḥāb at-tanāsukh ; Refutation of Upholders of Transmigration
- Kitāb at-tawḥīd wa ḥadīth al-Ilal ; Oneness and the Principal Cause
- Kitāb naqḍ Refutation Book
- Kitāb Abū ‘Īsā fī ‘l-gharīb al-mashraqī ; Refutation of the Book of Abū ‘Īsā about the Unusual Easterner
- Kitāb Ikhtiṣārī Ikhtiṣār al-kūn wa’l-fasād li-Arisṭālīs ; Abridgement of Aristotle’s “De Generatione et Corruptione”
- Kitāb al-Ihtijāj li ‘Umar ibn ‘Abbād wa nuṣrat madhabuhu ; Proof by Umar ibn ‘Abbād and a Defense of his Doctrines
- Kitāb al-Āmāmat ; ‘The Imamate’