Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal

Abstract

Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (780-855) of Baghdad, the eponymous founder of the Ḥanbalite School of law and theology was a prolific scholar of the Ḥadīth (muḥaddith), a jurisprudent (faqīh), and an influential public figure. Ibn Ḥanbal’s theological teachings reflected an ultra-traditionalistic worldview and relied mainly on a meticulous study of the Qurʾān and the Ḥadīth. Ibn Ḥanbal was in conflict with speculative theology (kalām) which in his lifetime was practiced by several theological trends, the most prominent of which was the Muʿtazila. An epitome of Islamic traditionalism, Ibn Ḥanbal refused to accept the Muʿtazilite dogma of the createdness of the Qurʾān. For this refusal, he was interrogated and tortured during the miḥna, the inquisition which the ʿAbbāsid caliph al-Maʾmūn adopted in 833.