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Ḥanbalī theology

Hoover, Jon

Authors

JON HOOVER JON.HOOVER@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Islamic Studies



Contributors

Sabine Schmidtke
Editor

Abstract

The modern study of Ḥanbalī theology was initially plagued by the problem of viewing Ḥanbalism through the eyes of its Ashʿarī opponents. I. Goldziher (d. 1921) and D. B. Macdonald (d. 1943) labelled the Ḥanbalīs ‘reactionary’ and bemoaned the harm that they had done to the cause of a conciliatory Ashʿarī orthodoxy. The work of H. Laoust (d. 1983) and G. Makdisi (d. 2002) turned the tide of scholarship toward closer examination of Ḥanbalī texts on their own terms and deeper understanding of Ḥanbalism in its historical context. Makdisi in particular argued that Ḥanbalism had a disproportionate impact on the development of Islamic theology because it was the only Sunnī law school to maintain a consistently traditionalist theological voice. For Makdisi, the Ḥanbalīs were the ‘spearhead’ of a wider traditionalist movement in medieval Islam against the rationalism of Muʿtazilī and Ashʿarī Kalām (Makdisi 1962–3; 1981). Aspects of Makdisi’s narrative require modification, especially as some leading Ḥanbalīs of the fifth/eleventh and sixth/twelfth centuries were more rationalist than earlier thought, but the main thrust of his argument still stands. It may be added that Ḥanbalī theology has also had a disproportionate impact on modern Islamic theology. The Wahhābī movement in Arabia and contemporary Salafism have appropriated and spread the theology of the eighth/fourteenth-century scholar Ibn Taymiyya far beyond the confines of the modern Ḥanbalī school of law. This chapter begins with the formation and early development of Ḥanbalism in order to clarify Makdisi’s claim, and it continues by surveying key Ḥanbalī figures from Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal in the third/ninth century to Ibn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb in the twelfth/eighteenth and giving extended attention to the unique theology of Ibn Taymiyya.

Citation

Hoover, J. (2016). Ḥanbalī theology. In S. Schmidtke (Ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.001.0001

Publication Date Mar 31, 2016
Deposit Date May 22, 2017
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Series Title Oxford Handbooks
Book Title The Oxford Handbook of Islamic Theology
ISBN 9780199696703
DOI https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.001.0001
Keywords Islamic theology, Uṣūl al-dīn, kalām, Islamic doctrine, Muʿtazila, Ashʿariyya, Māturidiyya, Orthodoxy, Karrāmiyya, Ibāḍiyya, Kullābiyya, Islamic mysticism, Islamic philosophy, Ismāʿīliyya, Zaydiyya, Twelver Shīʿa, Contemporary Islamic th
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/778390
Publisher URL http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199696703.001.0001/oxfordhb-9780199696703
Related Public URLs https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-islamic-theology-9780199696703?cc=gb&lang=en&#
Additional Information Reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press.

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