About the atlas

Source, method and data

This site maps the books through which the Ḥanafī school recorded its own history: the lives of Abū Ḥanīfa and the biographical dictionaries of his followers.

Source

The data follow Huzeyfe Çeker, Traditions of Biographies in the Hanafi Doctrine (NEU Press), chapters 2 to 4, which grew out of his 2016 doctoral thesis. Section numbers on each page point to his entry. The summaries here are written afresh; for the argument and the references, read the book.

Two genres 41 manāqib · 27 ṭabaqāt
Manāqib
A biography of Abū Ḥanīfa (d. 150/767) built around his virtues, often with chapters on his leading students. There are 41 here.
Ṭabaqāt
A compilation of Ḥanafī jurists, arranged by generation or alphabetically. There are 27 here.
Method and limits dates, places, survival, links, names

Dates and centuries

Dates are death dates, hijri first and common era second. Century grouping follows the book: al-Sakhāwī (d. 902) is counted in the 9th century, Müstaḳīmzāde (d. 1202) in the 12th and al-Laknawī (d. 1304) in the 13th.

Places

Regions are the ten the book uses. Seven works are not placed, because the author's home is unknown or the book ties him to no single region. Ibn al-Shiḥna is shown at Aleppo, though the book also counts his work under Egypt.

Survival

"In print", "manuscript only" and "lost" follow the catalogue source, with updates where supplied edition scans have been verified (including al-Sabadhmūnī’s 2020 edition). Newer editions may exist, so check before relying on "manuscript only". Shelfmarks are given as the book gives them.

Links between works

The network shows only the links the book states: a work quoting, abridging or continuing another, and teacher or family ties between authors. It is not a complete map of dependence.

Doubtful works

The book questions whether several of these works existed, or who wrote them. Those pages carry a note.

Names

Transliteration is normalised, so a few spellings differ from the book's (for example al-Athmār al-Janiyya for its al-Asmār). The Arabic forms were added for this site.

Person counts are distinct indexed reports per book and selected role. Source lists and uncertain matches are retained separately and are not added to report totals.

Shared person IDs and explicitly reviewed aliases connect records across books. Similar names alone do not establish identity. The al-Sabadhmūnī transcription is in progress; only scan-checked reports are published.

Data three downloads

The whole dataset can be downloaded and reused with credit to the book and to this site.

How to cite

Cite Hanafi Biographical Atlas, the specific page title and URL, and your access date. For source texts also cite the edition, volume and printed page indicated on that page.

Hanafi Biographical Atlas, https://hanafiatlas.com, based on Huzeyfe Çeker, Traditions of Biographies in the Hanafi Doctrine (NEU Press). Accessed [date].

Credits

Coastlines and modern reference boundaries are from Natural Earth (public domain), via world-atlas. Boundaries are for geographic orientation and do not represent historical states. The typefaces are Gentium Book Plus, IBM Plex Sans and Amiri, all under the SIL Open Font License and served from this site. Arabic headings also use Noto Nastaliq Urdu, under the SIL Open Font License.

Book photographs

Decorative architectural photographs are selected for each book. They do not imply a historical connection between the monument and the author. Images are supplied for Hanafi Atlas and compressed for display.

Homepage map photographs

Source and text notes

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