Al-Ash`ari was born at Basra in 260 or 270, and died at Baghdad about 330 or 340. At first he was an adherent of the Mu`tazilites, but one Friday in A.H. 300 he made a public renunciation of the views of that party, and took up a definitely orthodox position; in the pulpit of the great mosque at Basra he said, “They who know me know who I am; as for those who do not know me, I am `Ali b. Isma`il al-Ash`ari, and I used to hold that the Qur´an was created, that the eyes of men shall not see God, and that we ourselves are the authors of our evil deeds; now I have returned to the truth; I renounce these opinions, and I take the engagement to refute the Mu`tazilites and expose their infamy and turpitude” (Ibn Khallikan, ii. 228). From this it will be perceived that the doctrines then regarded as characteristic of the Mu`tazilites were (i.) that the Qur´an was created, (ii.) the denial of the possibility of the beatific vision, and (iii.) the freedom of the will. In the period after this change al-Ash`ari wrote a controversial work against the Mu`tazilites, which bears the name _Kitab ash-Sharh wa-t-Tafsil_, “the book of explanation and exposition”; he was the author also of religious treatises called _Luma_ “flashes,” _Mujaz_ “abridgment,” _Idah al-Burhan_ “elucidation of the Burhan,” and _Tabiyin_ “illustrations.” His real importance, however, lay in founding a school of orthodox scholasticism, afterwards more fully developed by al-Baqilani, and gradually spreading through the Muslim world, although strongly opposed on the one side by the _falasifah_, who saw in its teaching the introduction of traditional beliefs limiting and restricting the Aristotelian doctrine, and on the other side by the more reactionary orthodox, who disapproved the use of philosophical methods as applied to theological subjects. This use of philosophy in the explanation and defence of religion came to be known as _kalam_, and those who employed it were called _mutakallamin_. In dealing with the old problems of Muslim theology, such as the eternity of the Qur´an, the freedom of the will, etc., the Ash`arites do seem to have produced a reasonable statement of doctrine, which yet safeguarded the main demands of orthodoxy.