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.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Abdel Haleem, M. A. S. (Trans.). (2004). The Qurʾan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Al-Ājurrī, Abū Bakr. (2000). Kitāb al-Sharīʿa (Editorial Board of Muʼassasat al-Rayyān, Ed.). Beirut: Muʼassast al-Rayyān.
Al-Ashʿarī, Abu ‘l-Ḥasan. (1963). Kitāb Maqālāt al-Islāmiyyīn wa-Ikhtilāf al-Muṣallīn (Hellmut Ritter, Ed.). Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag GMBH.
Al-Dhahabī, Shams al-Dīn. (1985). Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʼ (Shuʿayb al-Arnaʼūṭ & Ḥusayn al-Asad, Eds.). Beirut: Muʼassasat al-Risāla.
Al-Iṣfahānī, Abū Nuʿaym. (1988). Ḥilyat al-Awliyāʼ wa-Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣfiyāʼ (no editor mentioned) (Vol. 9, pp. 167–445). Beirut: Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyya. (The biography of Ibn Ḥanbal).
Al-Khaṭīb al-Baghdādī. (2001). Tārīkh Madīnat al-Salām wa-Akhbār Muḥaddithīhā wa-Dhikr Quṭṭānihā al-ʿUlamāʼ min Ghayr Ahlihā wa-Wāridīhā (Tārīkh Baghdād) (Bashār ʿAwwād Maʿrūf, Ed.). Beirut: Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī.
Ibn al-Jawzī. (2013/2015). Virtues of the Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (Michael Cooperson, Ed. & Trans.) (Vols. 1 and 2). New York: New York University Press.
Ibn Ḥanbal, Aḥmad. (2003). Al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyya wa’l-Zanādiqa (Ṣabrī ibn Salāma Shāhīn, Ed.). Riyadh: Dār al-Thabāt li’l-Nashr wa’l-Tawzīʿ.
Ṣāliḥ, Abu ‘l-Faḍl. (1988). Masāʾil ‘l-Imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (Faḍl al-Raḥmān Dīn Muḥammad, Ed.). Delhi: al-Dār al-ʿIlmiyya.
Seale, M. (1964). Muslim theology: A study of origins with reference to the Church Fathers (pp. 96–125). London: Luzac. (A translation of Aḥmad’s al-Radd ʿalā al-Jahmiyya).
Watt, W. M. (1994). Islamic creeds: A selection (pp. 29–40). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. (A translation of three creeds attributed to Aḥmad).
Secondary Sources
Abrahamov, B. (1998). Islamic theology: Traditionalism and rationalism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Abrahamov, B. (2016). Scripturalist and traditionalist theology. In S. Schmidtke (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of Islamic theology (pp. 263–279). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Al-Azmeh, A. (1988). Orthodoxy and Ḥanbalite fideism. Arabica, 35, 253–266.
Al-Sarhan, S. (2011). Early Muslim traditionalism: A critical study of the works and political theology of Aḥmad Ibn Ḥanbal. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Exeter.
Al-Sarhan, S., & Melchert, C. (2014). The creeds of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. In R. Gleave (Ed.), Books and bibliophiles: Studies in honour of Paul Auchtelonie on the bio-bibliography of the Muslim world (pp. 29–44). Oxford: Gibb Memorial Trust.
Holtzman, L. (2018). Anthropomorphism in Islam: The challenge of traditionalism. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Hurvitz, N. (2001). Miḥna as self-defense. Studia Islamica, 92, 93–111.
Hurvitz, N. (2002). The formation of Ḥanbalism: Piety into power. London: Routledge Curzon.
Laoust, H. (1956–7). Les premières professions de foi ḥanbalites. In Mélanges Louis Massignon (Vol. 3, pp. 7–35). Damascus: Institut Français de Damas.
Lapidus, I. (1975). The separation of state and religion in the development of early Islamic society. International Journal of Middle East Studies, 6(4), 363–385.
Madelung, W. (1974). The origins of the controversy concerning the creation of the Koran. In J. M. Barral (Ed.), Orientalia Hispanica 1 (pp. 504–525). Leiden: Brill.
Melchert, C. (2005). The Musnad of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal: How it was composed and what distinguishes it from the six books. Der Islam, 82, 32–51.
Melchert, C. (2006). Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Oxford: Oneworld.
Patton, W. M. (1897). Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal and the Miḥna. Leiden: Brill.
Peters, J. R. T. M. (1976). God’s created speech. Leiden: Brill.
Tritton, A. S. (1972). The speech of God. Studia Islamica, 36, 5–22.
van Ess, J. (1970). The logical structure of Islamic theology. In G. E. von Grunebaum (Ed.), Logic in classical Islamic culture (pp. 21–50). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Watt, W. M. (1973). The formative period of Islamic thought. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature B.V.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Holtzman, L. (2020). Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal. In: Lagerlund, H. (eds) Encyclopedia of Medieval Philosophy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_605
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1665-7_605
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1663-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1665-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Humanities