born с 781, Al-Baṣrah
died 857, Baghdad
Sufi theologian.
He was reared in Baghdad in a prosperous family. He evolved a rationalist theology, advancing his ideas in didactic conversations with his pupils and in books written in the form of dialogues. His principal work minimized asceticism and acts of outward piety in favour of inward self-examination. Near the end of his life, he was persecuted as a heretic, but he was later seen as having anticipated the doctrines of Muslim orthodoxy.