188 Claudia Preckel
schools of law, of whom Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal was regarded as the greatest
authority. The Ahl-i Ḥadīth further claim that this work was free of
statements by “authors of speculative theology” (mutakallimūn). The
aforementioned Muḥammad b. Ismāʿīl al-Amīr commented on Ibn
Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī’s Bulūgh al-marām with his Subul al-salām (Paths
of Peace) and a rhymed version called Manẓūmat Bulūgh al-marām.
Ṣiddīq Ḥasan addressed these works by al-ʿAsqalānī and Muḥammad
b. Ismāʿīl al-Amīr with three commentaries, namely Misk al-khitām
(The Final Seal), al-Rawḍ al-bassām (The Smiling Gardens) and Fatḥ
al-ʿallām sharḥ Bulūgh al-marām (Explanation of the Understanding
of the Bulūgh al-marām). This shows that the early generation of the
Ahl-i Ḥadīth regarded these Yemenite authors, i. e. al-Amīr al-Yamanī
and Ibrāhīm al-Wazīr, as the first representatives of their movement.
The fight against bidaʿ was the aim of a Khorasanian author whose
books can also be found in Ṣiddīq Ḥasan Khān’s library: ʿAlī al-Qārī
(d. 1606). Born in Herat (Afghanistan), al-Qārī travelled widely and
became one of the most prolific teachers and writers on Hadith in 17th-
century Mecca.^85 It is astonishing that Ṣiddīq Ḥasan owned 35 works
in 18 books written by someone like him who was also known for his
strict adherence of the Ḥanafī school of law. But a close look at al-Qārī’s
works shows that he often differs from the Ḥanafī mainstream: for
example on the question of raising one’s hands during the ritual prayer
(rafʿ al-yadayn), al-Qārī took the position of the Meccan Shāfiʿīs of
his time, which was later to become the argumentation of the Ahl-i
Ḥadīth.^86 There were further several congruencies between the teach-
ings of the Ahl-i Ḥadīth and al-Qārī, e. g. in the critical assessment of
the works of the famous mystic Ibn ʿArabī (d. 1240)^87 or in their hostile
85 Only recently have Western scholars become aware of the role of al-Qārī, see
Franke, Patrick: Mullā ʿAlī al-Qārī. Textproduktion und Gedankenwelt eines
mekkanischen Religionsgelehrten der islamischen Jahrtausendwende, (forth-
coming).
86 It is worth mentioning that though belonging to the Zaydiyya al-Shawkānī held
several dogmatic positions that were also found in the Sunni schools of law.
Here, the Shāfiʿī school of law was of great importance in that the Zaydī Shiis
and the Shafiʿī scholars of Yemen were exchanging teaching licenses (ijāzāt).
Here, the scholarly families like the Ahdal family, who later became important
for the Ahl-i Ḥadīth, were leading experts of the Hadith and Shafīʿī traditions.
Some of the Ahl-i Ḥadīth I met in India even denied the fact that al-Shawkānī
was a Zaydī and maintained that he was a Shāfiʿī instead.
87 Al-Qārī, ʿAlī: al-Wujūdiyya fī nayl masāʾil al-shuhūdiyya (The Philosophy of
Existence on the Acquaintance of the Question of the Philosophy of Direct
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