About The Book

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. 597/1200), newly abridged for a paperback readership by translator Michael Cooperson.

Ahmad ibn Hanbal (d. 241/855), renowned for his profound knowledge of hadiths—the reports of the Prophet’s sayings and deeds—is a major figure in the history of Islam. He was famous for living according to his own strict interpretation of the Prophetic model and for denying himself the most basic comforts, even though his family was prominent and his city, Baghdad, was then one of the wealthiest in the world.

Ibn Hanbal’s piety and austerity made him a folk hero, especially after he resisted the attempts of two caliphs to force him to accept rationalist doctrine. His subsequent imprisonment and flogging is one of the most dramatic episodes of medieval Islamic history, and his principled resistance influenced the course of Islamic law, the rise of Sunnism, 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, The Life of Ibn Hanbal tells the formidable life tale of one of the most influential Muslims in history.

An English-only edition.

About The Author

Ibn al-Jawzi (d. 597 H/1201 AD) was a Baghdadi storyteller, preacher, and prolific Islamic scholar associated with the Hanbali school of jurisprudential thought. He is well known for his exegeses of the Qur'an and Hadith, including his famous compendium, Al-Tahqiq.

About The Translator

Michael Cooperson is a Professor of Arabic in the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Cultures at UCLA. His translations include The Life of Ibn Ḥanbal by Ibn al-Jawzī for the Library of Arabic Literature, and The Author and His Doubles by the eminent Moroccan literary critic Abdelfattah Kilito.

Foreword By

Garth Fowden is the Sultan Qaboos Professor of Abrahamic Faiths at the University of Cambridge.