Before and After Muhammad The First Millennium Refocused

A NEW PERIODIZATION | 65

MANICHEISM ISLAM R O M A N L AW MAZDAISM

EXEGETICAL

(see note below)

767 Death of (1) Abū

Hanīfa, eponym of

the Hanafi legal com-

munity; (2) Ibn Ishāq,

biographer of

Prophet.

795 Death of Mālik,

eponym of the Maliki

legal community.

EXEGETICAL

9th century Composi-

tion of Denkard and

other compilations of

tradition, the last major

monuments of

Mazdaism.

820 Death of Shāfiʿī,

eponym of the Shafi‘i

legal community.

833 Caliph Maʾmūn

officially espouses

doctrine that the

Qurʾān is created.

855 Death of Ibn

Hanbal, eponym of

the Hanbali legal

community and oppo-

nent of rational

theolog y.

later 9th century

Ascendancy of

Muʿtazilism.

Note : Despite its semiscriptural status in Islam, I classify the development of Prophetic tradition (hadīth) as exegetical
because of the amount of fraud and controversy involved, and because a hadīth is not God’s word like the Qurʾān. Also,
Sunnis and Shiites read the same Qurʾān but not the same hadīth.