the scriptural texts, and those who likened Allah to creation, who rejected the negations contained in those texts.

As we have mentioned, the first to speak of “body,” whether affirming or denying it, were groups among the Shia and the Muʿtazila. They were practitioners of speculative theology whom the early generations criticized. In such matters, the early generations were more vehement in their condemnation of the Muʿtazila. Their condemnation of the Shia was only widely known concerning matters associated with Shiism, such as questions of the imamate—in which they stood apart from the rest of the Muslim community—and related issues. This was unlike questions concerning the divine attributes and decree, on which their criticism of the Muʿtazila was well known, widespread, and evident to scholars and laypeople alike. The early Shia differed with the Muʿtazila on these matters. As for their later adherents, from the time of the Buyids and others like them, at the beginning of the fourth century AH and around