Surveys the Begriffsgeschichte of istiṭāʿah (< τὸ αὐτεξούσιον; τὸ ἐφ´ ἡμῖν) in antique and late antique philosophical and theological/patristic texts, the Syriac&Arabic reception history of the Nicomachean Ethics, Alexander of Aphrodisias's Maqāla fī l-istiṭāʿa, Nemesius of Emesa's K. Ṭabīʿat al-insān, and early Christian-Arabic literature, and critically considers real and alleged historical and conceptual relations to the notion of istiṭāʿa in Muʿtazilī theories of human agency.