AHMAD IBN HANBAL

born 780, Baghdad died 855, Baghdad Muslim theologian, jurist, and martyr for his faith. He was the compiler of the Traditions of the Prophet Muhammad (Musnad) and formulator of the Hanbali, the most strictly traditionalist of the four orthodox Islamic schools of law. His doctrine influenced such noted followers as the 13th14th-century theologian Ibn Taymiyah, the Wahhabiyah, an 18th-century reform movement, and the Salafiyah, a 19th-century Egyptian movement rooted in tradition. Additional reading For bibliography and information pertaining to Ibn Hanbal's works, see Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte des arabischen Schrifttums, vol. 1 (1967); for his life and works generally, see W.M. Patton, Ahmed ibn Hanbal and the Mihna (1897); and H. Laoust, Le Hanbalisme sous le califat de Bagdad, in Revue des tudes Islamiques (1959); and the Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 1 (1960). On Sufism in the Hanbali school of thought, see G. Makdisi, L'Isnad initiatique soufi de Muwaffaq ad-Din Ibn Qudama, in L'Herne: Louis Massignon (1970).