In this pioneering biography, Christopher Melchert examines the forefather of the fourth of the four principal Sunni schools of jurisprudence, the Hanbali. Upholding the view that the Qur¿an was uncreated and the direct word of God, Ahmad ibn Hanbal (780-855) thought that the holy text should be read literally, rejecting any possibility for metaphorical or revisionist interpretation. Showing that even in his own lifetime, ibn Hanbal¿s followers were revising his doctrines in favour of a more commodious Islam, Melchert assesses the importance of ibn Hanbal¿s teachings and analyses their relevance in modern Sunni Islam.

Makers of the Muslim World: This series is devoted to the men and women who made the Muslim world what it is today, be it in political, social, cultural or religious terms. Concise and thoroughly readable, yet drawing on impeccable scholarship, it includes thinkers and doers, figures early and late, in addition to many who were not Muslims by some or even any standards ¿ heretics, apostates, secularists, dhimmis, and pre-Islamic figures. The intention is to introduce those individuals of an Islamic background who lay the foundations not only for the modern Muslim world, but also for the world at large.

Dr Christopher Melchert is a lecturer in Arabic and Islam at the Oriental Institute, Oxford University. He has written numerous published articles on Islam and specifically Ahmad ibn Hanbal.

Introduction

CHAPTER 1: LIFE

Religious knowledge

Family man

Ahmad¿s character

The Inquisition

The end

CHAPTER 2: HADITH

The character of hadith

The age for collecting hadith

Writing down hadith

Ahmad¿s quest for hadith

The Musnad

Hadith criticism

CHAPTER 3: LAW

The spectrum of opinion in the ninth century

Hanbali literature

Ahmad¿s jurisprudence

The Hanbali school of law

CHAPTER 4: CORRECT BELIEF

Who is in, who is out?

What Ahmad believed

Rejected theological parties

Politics

Ahmad the fundamentalist?

Sunni theology after Ahmad

CHAPTER 5: PIETY

Ahmad and the renunciant tradition

An ideal within the range of most men

Ahmad¿s practice

CONCLUSION

Bibliography

Suggestions for further reading