Abū Ḥanīfa — al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit (d. 150 H / 767 C.E.) — was the eponymous founder of the Ḥanafī school of Sunni law and one of the principal authorities of Sunni kalām. He is named in the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī as one of the authors to whom the schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects — the *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — is sometimes attributed. The attribution is, as Voorhoeve records, one of the popular features of the tract, which belongs more to popular than to learned literature.
The attribution of the Maʿrifat al-madhāhib
The *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — the schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects that is one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān* — is attributed in various manuscripts to various authors, sometimes to Abū Ḥanīfa. The attribution is recorded by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition: among the Arabic manuscripts of the Maʿrifat al-madhāhib listed by Voorhoeve, those at Calcutta (Asiatic Society of Bengal, Ivanow 1726), Rāmpūr (cat. I, 322 no. 305b; cat. I, 716 no. 11), and Leningrad (A. M. Buch. 957) name Abū Ḥanīfa as author. The Moluccan manuscript of Leiden Cod. Or. 1255 — the principal witness to the textual tradition from which Raniri drew — gives in its colophon the attribution “Abū Ḥanīfa” (with the misspelling “Abū Ḥanīfifa” in the Leiden manuscript).
The al-Fiqh al-akbar
The *al-Fiqh al-akbar* — attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa — is one of the principal texts of early Sunni kalām. The tract *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* adds, in some manuscripts, one further sect derived from the al-Fiqh al-akbar: the Jismiyya or Mujassimiyya. The attribution of this addition to the al-Fiqh al-akbar is recorded by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition.
Significance
Abū Ḥanīfa is one of the principal authorities cited (or attributed) in the textual tradition of the *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — the schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects that is one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān* of Raniri. The attribution of the tract to Abū Ḥanīfa in various manuscripts — including the Moluccan manuscript of Leiden Cod. Or. 1255 — is one of the popular features of the tract, and is a document of the popular diffusion of the scholastic classification of Muslim heresies in the Indian Ocean world.
See Also
Source
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §2b (“De bronnen van de Tibjān”), pp. 13–15, where the attribution of the Maʿrifat al-madhāhib to Abū Ḥanīfa is discussed.
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL) I (2nd ed.), 177; Suppl. I, 237.
Abū Ḥanīfa — al-Nuʿmān b. Thābit (d. 150 H / 767 C.E.) — was the eponymous founder of the Ḥanafī school of Sunni law and one of the principal authorities of Sunni kalām. He is named in the *Tibjān fī maʿrifat al-adyān* of Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī as one of the authors to whom the schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects — the *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — is sometimes attributed. The attribution is, as Voorhoeve records, one of the popular features of the tract, which belongs more to popular than to learned literature.
The attribution of the Maʿrifat al-madhāhib
The *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — the schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects that is one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān* — is attributed in various manuscripts to various authors, sometimes to Abū Ḥanīfa. The attribution is recorded by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition: among the Arabic manuscripts of the Maʿrifat al-madhāhib listed by Voorhoeve, those at Calcutta (Asiatic Society of Bengal, Ivanow 1726), Rāmpūr (cat. I, 322 no. 305b; cat. I, 716 no. 11), and Leningrad (A. M. Buch. 957) name Abū Ḥanīfa as author. The Moluccan manuscript of Leiden Cod. Or. 1255 — the principal witness to the textual tradition from which Raniri drew — gives in its colophon the attribution “Abū Ḥanīfa” (with the misspelling “Abū Ḥanīfifa” in the Leiden manuscript).
The al-Fiqh al-akbar
The *al-Fiqh al-akbar* — attributed to Abū Ḥanīfa — is one of the principal texts of early Sunni kalām. The tract *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* adds, in some manuscripts, one further sect derived from the al-Fiqh al-akbar: the Jismiyya or Mujassimiyya. The attribution of this addition to the al-Fiqh al-akbar is recorded by Voorhoeve in the introduction to the 1955 edition.
Significance
Abū Ḥanīfa is one of the principal authorities cited (or attributed) in the textual tradition of the *Maʿrifat al-madhāhib* — the schematic overview of the seventy-two Islamic sects that is one of the principal sources of the *Tibjān* of Raniri. The attribution of the tract to Abū Ḥanīfa in various manuscripts — including the Moluccan manuscript of Leiden Cod. Or. 1255 — is one of the popular features of the tract, and is a document of the popular diffusion of the scholastic classification of Muslim heresies in the Indian Ocean world.
See Also
Source
Twee Maleise geschriften van Nūruddīn ar-Rānīrī: in facsimile uitgegeven met aantekeningen door P. Voorhoeve. Uitgaven van de Stichting De Goeje, No. 16. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1955. Inleiding §2b (“De bronnen van de Tibjān”), pp. 13–15, where the attribution of the Maʿrifat al-madhāhib to Abū Ḥanīfa is discussed.
C. Brockelmann, Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur (GAL) I (2nd ed.), 177; Suppl. I, 237.