born 780, Baghdad, Iraq
died 855, Baghdad
Muslim theologian and jurist.
He began to study the Mutazilī doctrine of a created (rather than eternal) Qurʾān, and he is remembered as a staunch upholder of Muslim traditionalism. He compiled the Traditions of Muhammad and is the eponym of the Ḥanbalī school, the most traditional of the four orthodox Islamic schools of law. Opposing codification of the law, he believed jurists needed the freedom to derive legal solutions from the Qurʾān and the {{link=sunna">sunna . He is revered as one of the fathers of Islam.