Description
Book Synopsis
The publication of The Formation of the Sunni Schools of Law, Ninth-Tenth Centuries C.E., first as a University of Pennsylvania doctoral dissertation in 1992, and subsequently as a monograph in 1997 (Studies in Islamic Law and Society, Brill), established Christopher Melchert as a pre-eminent scholar of the history of Islamic law and institutions. Through close readings of works on fiqh, meticulous unpacking of data in biographical dictionaries, and careful attention to curricular, pious, pedagogical, and scholarly practices, Melchert has subsequently illuminated the processes and procedures that undergirded the development of Islamic movements and institutions in the formative period of Islam.
The present volume brings together sixteen of his articles, including those considered his most important as well as ones that are difficult to access. Originally published between 1997 and 2014, they are arranged chronologically under three rubrics - hadith, piety and law. The material is presented in a new format, updated by Melchert where appropriate, and indexed. The appearance of these articles together in a single volume makes this book a highly significant and welcome contribution to the field of classical Islamic Studies.
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Table of Contents
CONTENTS
Hadith
1. The Adversaries of A?mad Ibn ?anbal
2. Bukh?r? and Early Hadith Criticism
3. The Musnad of A?mad ibn ?anbal: How It Was Composed and What Distinguishes It from the Six Books
4. Bukh?r? and His ?a???’
5. The Life and Works of AlNas?’?’
Piety
6. Early Renunciants as ?ad?th Transmitters
7. The Piety of the Hadith Fol
8. Ba?ran Origins of Classical Sufism
9. The Transition from Asceticism to Mysticism at the Middle of the Ninth Century C.E.
10. Exaggerated fear in the Early Islamic Renunciant Tradition
11. Renunciation (zuhd) in the Early Shi?i tradition
Law
12. How ?anafism Came to Originate in Kufa and Traditionalism in Medina
13. Traditionist-Jurisprudents and the Framing of Islamic Law
14. The Meaning of q?la ’lSh?fi‘? in Ninth-Century Sources
15. M?ward?, Ab? Ya?lá, and the Sunni Revival
16. Ibn Taymiyya and Ibn Qayyim alJawziyya and the ?anbali School of Law
