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A reconsideration of al-qāḍī al-Nu'mān's madhhab

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

Ismail K. Poonawala
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Extract

It has been generally accepted by modern scholars that al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān was in the beginning either a Mālikī or a Ḥanafī and that he subsequently became an Imāmī and finally adopted the Ismā'īlī faith. The Imāmī savants, from al-Qāḍī Nūr Allāh Shūshtarī to Āghā Buzurg-i Tihrānī, maintain that al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān was one of their co-religionists. Ismā'īlīs, on the other hand, regard him as one of the pillars of their da'wa. In the light of recently discovered sources and of the consequent revaluation and reinterpretation of earlier works, a re-examination of the question of al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān's madhhab becomes necessary. The present article attempts to do precisely that, and show how and when the theory of al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān's conversion originated.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , February 1974 , pp. 572 - 579
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Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1974

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References

1 For the detailed description of the sources, cf. Poonawala, I. K., ‘Al-Qāḍī al-Nu'mān's works and the sources’, BSOAS, XXXVI, 1, 1973, 109–15CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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