148 Christopher Melchert
ment within the school by ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulaymān al-Mardāwī
(d. Damascus, 885/1480), al-Inṣāf fī maʿrifat al-rājiḥ min al-khilāf ʿalā
madhhab al-imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal (Doing Justice Concerning the
Knowledge of What Predominates by Way of Disagreement in the
School of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal). This is formally a detailed commentary
on Ibn Qudāma al-Maqdisī (d. Damascus, 620/1223), al-Muqniʿ (The
Convincing).^4 I chose a sample of ten pages per volume (except for the
last, of which about a third is given over to other texts), 116 altogether.
The more someone is cited, the more important he presumptively was
to the evolution of the Ḥanbalī juridical discourse.
Here is a summary of what I found, mainly the twenty-one authori-
ties most often cited, with notes indicating names of books cited and
references of first resort for biographical information.
- Ibn Mufliḥ al-Qāqūnī, Muḥammad (d. Damascus, 763/1362).
256 citations, mostly of al-Furūʿ (The Branches). For biographical
information, see Laoust, Henri: Le Hanbalisme sous les mamlouks
bahrides (658–784/1260–1382), in: Revue des études islamiques 28
(1960), pp. 171, at pp. 68–69.
- Ibn Qudāma, ʿAbd Allāh b. Aḥmad (d. Damascus, 620/1223).
225 citations, of al-Mughnī (That Which Relieves of Want), al-Kāfī
(The Sufficient), etc., often as al-Muṣannif (the Author; since he
wrote the book on which al-Inṣāf is a commentary). For biographi-
cal information, see Laoust, Henri: Le Hanbalisme sous le califat de
Bagdad (241/855–656/1258), in: Revue des études islamiques 27 (1959),
pp. 67–128, at pp. 124–125.
4 I use al-Mardāwī, ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn ʿAlī b. Sulaymān: al-Inṣāf fī maʿrifat al-rājiḥ
min al-khilāf ʿalā madhhab al-imām Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, ed. by Muḥammad
Ḥāmid al-Fiqī, Cairo 1955–1958, as anonymously reworked and reprinted; Bei-
rut 1419/1998. The edition of Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad Ḥasan Muḥammad
Ḥasan Ismāʿīl al-Shāfiʿī, Beirut 1418/1997, seems to be superior, but not so as to
affect my count of citations.
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