The Life of Ibn Ḥanbal. Ibn al-Jawzi

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      THE LIFE OF IBN ḤANBAL

      LIBRARY OF ARABIC LITERATURE

      EDITORIAL BOARD

      GENERAL EDITOR

      Philip F. Kennedy, New York University

      EXECUTIVE EDITORS

      James E. Montgomery, University of Cambridge

      Shawkat M. Toorawa, Yale University

      EDITORS

      Sean Anthony, The Ohio State University

      Julia Bray, University of Oxford

      Michael Cooperson, University of California, Los Angeles

      Joseph E. Lowry, University of Pennsylvania

      Maurice Pomerantz, New York University Abu Dhabi

      Tahera Qutbuddin, University of Chicago

      Devin J. Stewart, Emory University

      EDITORIAL DIRECTOR

      Chip Rossetti

      DIGITAL PRODUCTION MANAGER

      Stuart Brown

      ASSOCIATE MANAGING EDITOR

      Gemma Juan-Simó

      LETTER FROM THE GENERAL EDITOR

      The Library of Arabic Literature series offers Arabic editions and English translations of significant works of Arabic literature, with an emphasis on the seventh to nineteenth centuries. The Library of Arabic Literature thus includes texts from the pre-Islamic era to the cusp of the modern period, and encompasses a wide range of genres, including poetry, poetics, fiction, religion, philosophy, law, science, history, and historiography.

      Books in the series are edited and translated by internationally recognized scholars and are published in parallel-text format with Arabic and English on facing pages, and are also made available as English-only paperbacks.

      The Library encourages scholars to produce authoritative, though not necessarily critical, Arabic editions, accompanied by modern, lucid English translations. Its ultimate goal is to introduce the rich, largely untapped Arabic literary heritage to both a general audience of readers as well as to scholars and students.

      The Library of Arabic Literature is supported by a grant from the New York University Abu Dhabi Institute and is published by NYU Press.

      Philip F. Kennedy

       General Editor, Library of Arabic Literature

      ABOUT THIS PAPERBACK

      This paperback edition differs in a few respects from its dual-language hardcover predecessor. Because of the compact trim size the pagination has changed, but paragraph numbering has been retained to facilitate cross-referencing with the hardcover. Material that referred to the Arabic edition has been updated to reflect the English-only format, and other material has been corrected and updated where appropriate. For information about the Arabic edition on which this English translation is based and about how the LAL Arabic text was established, readers are referred to the hardcover.

      THE LIFE OF IBN ḤANBAL

      BY

      IBN AL-JAWZĪ

      TRANSLATED BY

      MICHAEL COOPERSON

      FOREWORD BY

      GARTH FOWDEN

      VOLUME EDITOR

      TAHERA QUTBUDDIN

      NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS

       New York

      Copyright © 2016 by New York University

      All rights reserved

      Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

      Names: Ibn al-Jawzi, Abu al-Faraj Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali, approximately 1116–1201 author. | Cooperson, Michael translator.

      Title: The life of Ibn Hanbal / by Ibn al-Jawzi ; translated by Michael Cooperson ; foreword by Garth Fowden.

      Other titles: Manaqib al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal. English

      Description: New York : New York University Press, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

      Identifiers: LCCN 2016028108 (print) | LCCN 2016029914 (ebook) | ISBN 9781479805303 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781479886241 (e-book) | ISBN 9781479870394 (e-book)

      Subjects: LCSH: Ibn Hanbal, Ahmad ibn Muòhammad, 780–855. | Islamic law—Biography.

      Classification: LCC KBp310.12653 126513 2016 (print) | LCC KBP310.12653 (ebook) | DDC 297.1/4092 [B]—dc23

      LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016028108

      New York University Press books are printed on acid-free paper, and their binding materials are chosen for strength and durability.

      Series design and composition by Nicole Hayward

      Typeset in Adobe Text

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      CONTENTS

       Letter from the General Editor

       About this Paperback

       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