1 Mulāzama in Action in the Early Ādāb al-Bath  Walter Edward Young Ruhr-Universität Bochum Abstract By presenting and analyzing an early ādāb al-ba·th commentary’s illustrative dialectical sequences, the current study: (1) reveals a set of distinct strategies employed in mulāzama justification; (2) sheds light on a number of additional argument types in regular use; and (3) provides a scripted impression of how a disputation governed by the ādāb al-ba·th would, in practice, have sounded. These general patterns, impressions, and particular argument identifications, together with those of future microstudies, may, it is hoped, inform the analytical foundation for both exploring the ādāb al-ba·th’s argumentative genealogy, and assessing its formative influence in “post- classical” Islamic rational disciplines.  ) The current study derives from a presentation delivered at the Project Workshop: “Major Issues and Controversies of Arabic Logic and Philosophy of Language,” 12 Dec. 2015, Ruhr- Universität Bochum, where it benefitted from the helpful comments of several participants. I would especially thank Cornelia Schöck, Khaled El-Rouayheb, Tony Street, Riccardo Strobino, Asad Ahmed, and Joep Lameer. Thanks are also due to the anonymous reviewer whose questions and suggestions, though I have been unable to follow them all, were nevertheless valuable. The critical editions and translations of al-Kīlānī and al-Samarqandī upon which this research is based were produced during my time as Research Officer with the ERC funded IMPAcT Project, 2014-2015, University of Oxford, Judith Pfeiffer, PI. Certain example sequences were presented as animated PowerPoints elsewhere: sequence #2 in a plenary session at the British Association for Islamic Studies (BRAIS) Conference, 11 Apr. 2016, University of London; and sequence #3.1-2 in a Visiting Fellow Presentation for the Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Dynamics in the History of Religions Between Asia and Europe, 16 Nov. 2015, Ruhr-Universität Bochum. Walter Edward Young, Visiting Research Fellow, Käte Hamburger Kolleg: Dynamics in the History of Religions Between Asia and Europe, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 90a, 44789 Bochum, Germany, walter.young@mail.mcgill.ca.