L'atharisme, théologie traditionaliste, théologie des salaf ou théologie hanbalite[1] est un mouvement érudit islamique, né à la fin du VIIIe siècle de notre ère, qui rejette pour une partie d'entre eux la théologie islamique rationaliste (kalam) au profit d'un textualisme strict dans l'interprétation du Coran et des hadith[2],[3]. Le nom vient de « tradition » dans son sens technique comme traduction du mot arabe hadith.
.« The Atharis can thus be described as a school or movement led by a contingent of scholars (ulama), typically Hanbalite or even Shafi'ite, which retained influence, or at the very least a shared sentiment and conception of piety, well beyond the limited range of Hanbalite communities. This body of scholars continued to reject theology in favor of strict textualism well after Ash'arism had infiltrated the Sunni schools of law. It is for these reasons that we must delineate the existence of a distinctly traditionalist, anti-theological movement, which defies strict identtification with any particular madhhab, and therefore cannot be described as Hanbalite. »