MATURIDI, ABU MANSUR MUHAMMAD AL-

in full Abu Mansur Muhammad Ibn Mahmud Al-hanafi Al-mutakallim Al-maturidi As-samarqandi died 944, Samarkand titular head of the Maturidiyah school of theology, which came to be one of the most important foundations of Islamic doctrine. Except for the place and time of Maturidi's death, almost nothing is known about the details of Maturidi's life. He lived during a time when the Mu'tazilites, a Muslim sect, were using the techniques of Greek logical argument to attack what had come to be accepted as orthodox Muslim theology. Maturidi seized the offensive by using these same arguments as a means of defending orthodox theology. In fact, such use of logic was widespread, and it is not clear why Maturidi came to be accepted as a protagonist of such thought or why reference to him came to supersede reference to Abu Hanifah (d. 767), the Muslim theologian who seems to have been the first to adopt the methods of the Mu'tazilites. Maturidi is also noted for his emphasis on the morality of human responsibility, which contributed to the humanization of orthodoxy that occurred in the following centuries.