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