Mohammed Akram Nadwi: Mohammed Akram Nadwi, former student then teacher of Hanafi‚ and Shafi‚ law at the prestigious Nadwa ul-Ulama (Lucknow, India), is now a Research Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies. He is the author (in Arabic) of several biographies, and editions and translations of classical fiqh works. His most recent publications in English are a multi-volume primer of Hanafi fiqh (al-Fiqh al-Islami, 2007—), and al-Muhaddithat: the Women Scholars in Islam (2007).

Preface - About Abu Hanifah, vii
-About this book, ix
-Acknowledgements, xii
1. Introduction: background to the first development of the law
-The importance of the law in Islam, 3
-After the death of the Prophet, 10
-The emergence of Islamic scholars, 12
-Scholars as judges and jurisconsults, 15
-'Quran and Sunnah': a clarification, 17
2. His life -Name and ancestry, 21
-Early education, 23
-Training in fiqh, 25
-Reputation in hadith circles, 28
-His teachers in hadith and fiqh, 29
-His relations with the state; imprisonment and death, 37
-His descendants, 41
- His livelihood and personal qualities, 42
-The view of contemporaries and peers, 50
3. His fiqh
-The Kufan school of fiqh, 53
-Abu Hanifah and the Kufan school, 56
-Sources and principles of his fiqh, 58
-The Qur'an and Sunnah and ijma`, 59
-Preference between hadith and qiyas, 63
-Ijma and qiyas, 64
-Istihsan, 69
-Characteristics of Abu Hanifah's fiqh, 70
-Ahl al-ra'y and ahl al-¿hadith, 75
4. His works and his students
-Kalam (dogmatics and theology), 86
-Hadith, 92
-His students: hadith specialists, 94;
jurists, 98
5. His achievement and legacy
-Abu Hanifah's fiqh: an overview, 101
-Regional spread of the Hanafi' school, 104
-Developments of the fiqh works of the school, 108
-Development of usul al-fiqh in the hanafi' school, 112
-The modern period, 114
-Postscript, 115
6. Sources and Further reading
-Sources, 121
-Further reading: Abu Hanifah's life, 126;
- Abu Hanifah's fiqh, 127

Bibliography

Index
-Qur'anic verses and Prophetic traditions cited, 133
-Geographical terms, 134
-Names of persons and groups, 135
-Keywords, concepts, topics, 141
-Transliterated words and phrases, 148

List of charts; image

1 Transmission of hadith, through the students of major narrators among the Companions, to Abu Hanifah
2 Transmission of fiqh, through the students of major jurists among the Companions, to Abu Hanifah
3 Transmission of hadith, through Abu Hanifah's students, to the compilers of the 'Six Books' of hadith
4 Transmission of fiqh, through the students of Abu hanifah, to the founders of the Shafi`' and Hanbali' schools

The Abu Hanifah masjid, Baghdad, where he is buried, ca. 1890