INTRODUCTION

When we turn from Ibn ḥanbal (d. 241/855) to the later development of ḥanbalism, we no longer have a body of normative material so close to the life of the streets. Instead, we find ourselves looking through two rather different windows. On the one hand, we have formal, even systematic accounts of the duty from the pens of major ḥanbalite scholars. These accounts rather awkwardly seek to straddle the gap between the heritage of Ibn ḥanbal's responsa on the one hand, and a fashionably systematising intellectual style on the other. What we lose here is the original sense of immediacy in the relationship of principle to practice. The other window is historical. After a period in which the ḥanbalites play little part in the history of Baghdad, they rather suddenly acquire notoriety as troublemakers through the exploits of Barbahārī (d. 329/941) and his contemporaries. This activity then continues to be documented through the Būyid domination (334–447/945–1055) and far into the Seljūq period (447–590/1055–1194). It gradually recedes, however, with the emergence of close ties between the ḥanbalites and the 'Abbāsid state; this happy relationship then lasts until the demise of the caliphate in 656/1258. What we have is thus largely a record of high principles on the one hand, and high drama on the other; but we no longer hear much of the daily round of forbidding wrong.