Wasil ibn Ata, who withdrew from Hasan al-Basri's circle over the status of the grave sinner, dies in Basra; his circle's doctrine of the intermediate position gives the Mu'tazila, the first school of Islamic theology, its name and its beginning.
The Event
- Date
- 748 (approximate)
- Era
- Umayyad; Standard periodization of Islamic history
- Location
- Basra; today Basra, Iraq
- Traditions
- Islam
- Streams
- Mu'tazila
- Key figures
- Wasil ibn Ata, Hasan al-Basri
Primary Sources
- Al-Shahrastani, Kitab al-Milal
Secondary Sources
- Berkey, The Formation of Islam: Religion and Society in the Near East, 600-1800 (Cambridge, 2003)
- Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path (Oxford, 4th ed. 2011)
Provenance: HIST-0216; confidence 0.85; accessed 2026-10-27.
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