عقود الجمان في مناقب الإمام الأعظم أبي حنيفة النعمان-البشائر

Uqud al-Juman fi Manaqib al-Imam al-Azam Abi Hanifah al-Numan

A substantial classical biography of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah (d. 150 AH) by the distinguished Shāfiʿī ḥadīth scholar and historian Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf al-Ṣāliḥī al-Shāmī (d. 942 AH), best known for his monumental work on the Prophetic biography, Subul al-Hudā wa’l-Rashād.

Al-Ṣāliḥī draws upon a remarkably wide range of earlier sources to assemble a detailed portrait of the Imam. He discusses Abū Ḥanīfah’s lineage and birth, his appearance and characteristics, the Companions he is reported to have encountered, his teachers and the numerous scholars who studied and transmitted from him, his pursuit of knowledge, and his subsequent teaching and issuing of fatwā. The work also treats his outstanding intellectual qualities and his position among the great jurists of Islam.

Alongside this scholarly biography, considerable space is devoted to Abū Ḥanīfah’s worship, piety, scrupulousness, generosity, humility, character and other virtues, presenting both his scholarly and personal qualities. Particularly valuable is al-Ṣāliḥī’s extensive use of earlier works of ḥadīth, history and biography, including sources such as Ibn Abī Shaybah, Ibn Ḥibbān, al-Dūlābī, Ibn al-Jawzī, al-ʿIrāqī and many others.

The Dār al-Bashāʾir al-Islāmiyyah edition, in one volume of 412 pages, is edited by Abū al-Wafāʾ Maḥmūd Shāh al-Afghānī. ʿUqūd al-Jumān is an important source for students interested in the biography of Abū Ḥanīfah, the early history of the Ḥanafī school, and the assessment of the Imam by the broader Sunni scholarly tradition.