Abū Bakr Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan Ibn Fūrak al-Iṣfahānī (d. 406/1015-6) was an important proponent of the early Ashʿarī school of theology and a Shāfiʿī legal scholar. Judging from his nisba , he was probably from the city of Isfahan. Ibn Fūrak's theological training began in Baghdad, under the tutelage of a direct disciple of Abū l-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī (d. 324/935-6), the little known Abū l-Ḥasan al-Bāhilī (fl. fourth/tenth century), who also instructed Abū Isḥāq al-Isfarāyīnī (d. 418/1027) and