Hisham ibn al-Hakam

Hisham ibn al-Hakam (died traditionally around 179 AH / 795 CE) was one of the earliest and most influential theologians (mutakallim, a practitioner of kalam, speculative or "dialectical" theology) of Imami Shi'i Islam. Born in Kufa in southern Iraq to a family of mawali (non-Arab "clients" attached to an Arab tribe, here the Kinda), he grew up in nearby Wasit and traded between Kufa and Baghdad.

Imami tradition presents him as a devoted disciple of two of the Imams that Twelver Shi'is regard as the rightful successors to the Prophet Muhammad: Ja'far al-Sadiq (died 148/765) and his son Musa al-Kazim (died 183/799). He is widely credited as the first to bring the question of the imamate — who must lead the community after the Prophet — into formal theological debate. Whether the imamate is divinely appointed is a matter Sunnis and Shi'is dispute; the site presents it as a position held, not a settled fact.

Hisham was a famed polemicist who debated Mu'tazili rationalists, Kharijites and others. He drew lasting controversy: heresiographers such as al-Ash'ari reported that he and his followers (the "Hishamiyya") held God to be a body (jism). Later Shi'i scholars, including al-Sharif al-Murtada, argued these reports were exaggerated or misread rhetorical arguments. The accusation remains debated. Forced from Baghdad late in life, he is said to have died in hiding in Kufa; the exact year is disputed (179, 183, 188, or 199 AH are all reported).