Dahrīs were thinkers in the early Islamic world whose cosmology left little or no room for God. Usually translated 'materialists" or "eternalists," the term has also been used in a generic sense for anyone, such as a modern scientist, who deems the universe to be explicable without reference to divine intervention. 1. The early Dahrīs The Dahrīs are first mentioned in Iraq in the 120s/740s. By profession they seem mostly to have been doctors, astrologers, alchemists, and others interested in the workings of the natural world. In intellectual style