The Formation of Hanbalism: Piety into Power.

• Author: Pomerantz, Maurice A.
• Position: Book review

The Formation of Hanbalism: Piety into Power. By NIMROD HURVITZ. Culture and Civilization in the Middle East. London: ROUTLEDGECURZON, 2002. Pp. xi + 211. $125.

Nimrod Hurvitz, in the book under review, examines the life and career of the famed Baghdadi jurist Ahmad b. Hanbal (d. 240/855). By sifting the minute details of his subject's biography, Hurvitz has written a work of "microhistory" (following the terminology of the historian G. Levi) where a scholar seeks to "magnify a circumscribed body of historical data in the hope of revealing new components, patterns and connections" (p. 7). In addition to providing readers with an insightful, readable, and exacting portrait of the life of one of the preeminent scholars of the ninth century, Hurvitz has shown that much about the social, religious, and political world can be gleaned from the perspective afforded by his study. As many of the followers of Ibn Hanbal certainly knew, Hurvitz reminds us once again that there is much to be gained in the patient examination of another man's example.

The volume is remarkable both for its concision (only 211 pages) and its coverage of the main aspects of Ibn Hanbal's career and importance. The author neatly divides his narrative into three sections, broadly dealing with different aspects of his subject's private, scholarly, and political life. In this way, Hurvitz is not only able to treat each of these disparate realms of Ibn Hanbal's experience independently, but is also capable of showing the complex manner in which each of these areas of Ibn Hanbal's life interacted and worked together and inspired the character of the movement that would bear his name.

In the first section, entitled "Private Life" (pp. 23-70), Hurvitz discusses the evidence concerning Ibn Hanbal's origins and family, childhood, and education, and concludes with an examination of the private acts of piety which Ibn Hanbal cultivated. In the second section, "The Formation of the Hanbali School" (pp. 73-112), the author traces Ibn Hanbal's role in the development of the Hanbali circle and school of law that grew up around the scholar and survived after his death. The final section of the book, "The Mihna" (pp. 115-57), deals with the scholar's public role during the inquisition of correct belief known as the mihna and the resultant status which he acquired in the aftermath of this trying time for the Muslim community. An epilogue addresses the larger questions of religious leadership...