The Life of Ibn Ḥanbal / / Ibn al-Jawzī.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter New York University Press Complete eBook-Package 2016
• VerfasserIn: al-Jawzī, Ibn,
• MitwirkendeR: Cooperson, Michael,; Fowden, Garth,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : New York University Press, , [2016]; ©2016
• Year of Publication: 2016
• Language: English
• Series: Library of Arabic Literature ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource

The Life of Ibn Hanbal is a translation of the biography of Ibn Hanbal by the Baghdad preacher, scholar, and storyteller Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 H/1200 AD), newly abridged for a paperback readership by translator Michael Cooperson Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241 H/855 AD), renowned for his profoundknowledge of hadiths-the reports of the Prophet’s sayings and deeds-is a majorfigure in the history of Islam. He was famous for living according to his ownstrict interpretation of the Prophetic model and for denying himself the mostbasic comforts, even though his family was prominent and his city, Baghdad, wasthen one of the wealthiest in the world. Ibn Hanbal’s piety and austerity madehim a folk hero, especially after he resisted the attempts of two caliphs toforce him to accept rationalist doctrine. His subsequent imprisonment andflogging is one of the most dramatic episodes of medieval Islamic history, and hisprincipled resistance influenced the course of Islamic law, the rise ofSunnism, and the legislative authority of the caliphate. Set against the background of fierce debates over the role of reason and the basis of legitimate government, it tells the formidable life tale of one of the most influential Muslims in history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Notes to the Introduction -- The Life of IBN Ḥanbal -- Chapter 1. Ibn Ḥanbal’s Birth and Family Background -- Chapter 2. His Lineage -- Chapter 3. His Childhood -- Chapter 4. The Beginning of His Search for Knowledge and the Journey He Undertook for That Purpose -- Chapter 5. The Major Men of Learning Whom He Met and on Whose Authority He Recited Hadith -- Chapter 6. His Deference to His Teachers and His Respect for Learning -- Chapter 7. His Eagerness to Learn and His Single-Minded Pursuit of Knowledge -- Chapter 8. His Powers of Retention and the Number of Reports He Knew by Heart -- Chapter 9. His Learning, His Intelligence, and His Religious Understanding -- Chapter 10. Praise of Him by His Teachers -- Chapter 11. Teachers and Senior Men of Learning Who Cite Him -- Chapter 12. All the Men of Learning Who Cite Him -- Chapter 13. Praise of Him by His Peers, His Contemporaries, and Those Close to Him in Age -- Chapter 14. Praise of Him by Prominent Successors Who Knew Him Well -- Chapter 15. A Report That the Prophet Elijah Sent Him Greetings -- Chapter 17. Praise of Him by Pious Strangers and Allies of God -- Chapter 18. Allies of God Who Visited Him to Seek His Blessing -- Chapter 19. His Fame -- Chapter 20. His Creed -- Chapter 21. His Insistence on Maintaining the Practices of the Early Muslims -- Chapter 22. His Reverence for Hadith Transmitters and Adherents of the Sunnah -- Chapter 23. His Shunning and Reviling of Innovators and His Forbidding Others to Listen to Them -- Chapter 24. His Seeking of Blessings and Cures Using the Qurʾan and Water from the Well of Zamzam, as Well as Some Hair and a Bowl That Belonged to the Prophet -- Chapter 25. His Age When He Began Teaching Hadith and Giving Legal Opinions -- Chapter 26. His Devotion to Learning and the Attitudes That Informed His Teaching -- Chapter 27. His Works -- Chapter 28. His Aversion to Writing Books Containing Opinions Reached through the Exercise of Independent Judgment at the Expense of Transmitted Knowledge -- Chapter 29. His Forbidding Others to Write Down or Transmit His Words -- Chapter 30. His Remarks on Sincerity, on Acting for the Sake of Appearances, and on Concealing One’s Pious Austerities -- Chapter 31. His Statements about Renunciation and Spiritual Weakness -- Chapter 32. His Remarks on Different Subjects -- Chapter 33. Poems He Recited or Had Attributed to Him -- Chapter 34. His Correspondence -- Chapter 35. His Appearance and Bearing -- Chapter 36. His Imposing Presence -- Chapter 37. His Cleanliness and Ritual Purity -- Chapter 38. His Kindness and His Consideration for Others -- Chapter 39. His Forbearance and His Readiness to Forgive -- Chapter 40. His Property and Means of Subsistence -- Chapter 41. His Refusal to Accept Help Even in Distress -- Chapter 42. His Generosity -- Chapter 43. His Accepting Gifts and Giving Gifts in Return -- Chapter 44. His Renunciation -- Chapter 45. His House and Furniture -- Chapter 46. His Diet -- Chapter 47. His Indulgences -- Chapter 48. His Clothing -- Chapter 49. His Scrupulosity -- Chapter 50. His Shunning Appointment to Positions of Authority -- Chapter 51. His Love of Poverty and His Affection for the Poor -- Chapter 52. His Humility -- Chapter 53. His Accepting Invitations and His Withdrawal upon Seeing Things He Disapproved Of -- Chapter 54. His Preference for Solitude -- Chapter 55. His Wish to Live in Obscurity and His Efforts to Remain Unnoticed -- Chapter 56. His Fear of God -- Chapter 57. His Preoccupation and Absentmindedness -- Chapter 58. His Devotions -- Chapter 59. His Performances of the Pilgrimage -- Chapter 60. His Extemporaneous Prayers and Supplications -- Chapter 61. His Manifestations of Grace and the Effectiveness of His Prayers -- Chapter 62. The Number of Wives He Had -- Chapter 63. His Concubines -- Chapter 64. The Number of His Children -- Chapter 65. The Lives of His Children and Descendants -- Chapter 66. How and Why the Inquisition Began -- Chapter 67. His Experience with al-Maʾmūn -- Chapter 68. What Happened after the Death of al-Maʾmūn -- Chapter 69. His Experience with al-Muʿtaṣim -- Chapter 70. His Reception by the Elders after His Release, and Their Prayers for Him -- Chapter 71. His Teaching of Hadith after the Death of al-Muʿtaṣim -- Chapter 72. His Experience with al-Wāthiq -- Chapter 73. His Experience with al-Mutawakkil -- Chapter 74. His Refusing Ibn Ṭāhir’s Request to Visit Him -- Chapter 75. What Happened When His Two Sons and His Uncle Accepted Gifts from the Authorities -- Chapter 76. Some Major Figures Who Capitulated to the Inquisition -- Chapter 77. His Comments on Those Who Capitulated -- Chapter 78. Those Who Defied the Inquisition -- Chapter 79. His Final Illness -- Chapter 80. His Date of Death and His Age When He Died -- Chapter 81. How His Body Was Washed and Shrouded -- Chapter 82. On Who Sought to Pray over Him -- Chapter 83. The Number of People Who Prayed over Him -- Chapter 84. The Praising of the Sunnah and the Decrying of Innovation That Took Place during His Funeral Procession -- Chapter 85. The Crowds That Gathered around His Grave -- Chapter 86. His Estate -- Chapter 87. Reactions to His Death -- Chapter 88. Reaction to His Death on the Part of the Jinns -- Chapter 89. On the Condolences Offered to His Family -- Chapter 90. A Selection of the Verses Spoken in Praise of Him in Life and in Commemoration of Him in Death -- Chapter 91. His Dreams -- Chapter 92. Dreams in Which He Appeared to Others -- Chapter 93. Dreams in Which He Was Mentioned -- Chapter 94. The Benefit of Visiting His Grave -- Chapter 95. The Benefit of Being Buried Near Him -- Chapter 96. The Punishments That Befall Anyone Who Attacks Him -- Chapter 97. What to Think about Anyone Who Speaks Ill of Him -- Chapter 98. Why We Chose His Legal School over the Others -- Chapter 99. On the Excellence of His Associates and Successors -- Chapter 100. His Most Prominent Associates and Their Successors from His Time to Our Own -- [Colophons] -- Notes -- Glossary of Names and Terms -- Bibliography -- Further Reading -- Index -- About the NYU Abu Dhabi Institute -- About the Translator -- The Library of Arabic Literature