Praise belongs to Allah, the Lord of the Worlds, and peace and blessings be upon our master Muhammad

 
 
 
Chapter Three
 
The Age of Abu Hanifa
 
 
Abu Hanifa was born in 80 AH when ‘Abdu’l-Malik ibn Marwan was khalif. He lived until 150, thus, as 
we said, experienced both the strength and weakness of the Umayyads and the rise and consolidation of the 
Abbasids. He lived longer under the rule of the Umayyads than the Abbasids, passing fifty-two years of his 
life under Umayyad rule, which was the time of his education and when he reached the peak of his knowledge 
and full intellectual maturity. He only lived through twelve years of Abbasid rule. At such a mature age, this 
would not involve a reversal of his intellectual methods and customs. At that point, his output was great and 
input only a little. We cannot say that he absorbed nothing because the human intellect is always seeking 
knowledge and is constantly learning and scholars are always seeking increase in knowledge. 
In fact, the difference between the end of the Umayyad era and the beginning of the Abbasid era was not 
great in respect of scholarly spirit, especially on the religious side, because the Abbasid period grew out of 
what existed under the Umayyads. In the fields of scholarship and social development, one was the result of 
the other, like a continuous river in which various waters clash, differing slightly in taste and colour but 
deviating little from the main flow. The scholarly and social spirit which dominated the Umayyads came from 
the larger community, not from the government. 
As well as the legacy of the knowledge of the Companions, there was also the legacy of the civilisations 
and sciences of the conquered nations. They amplified the Arabic tradition with some of the inherited 
knowledge of those nations which was translated from Persian and other languages. The process of translation 
began in the Umayyad era. It is enough to remark that the author of 
Kalila wa Dimna
, and other writers lived 
most of their lives in the Umayyad era. We find religious knowledge growing in Abbasid times and translation 
spreading and being supported. That was a natural and continuing development. 
We will begin our survey with the political scene. The first phenomenon can be found in the rise of the 
Umayyad state which was established after the governance of the first four khalifs. Until then, the khalif had 
been chosen from amongst prominent Qurayshi Muslims, either upon the indication of the preceding khalif, as 
happened with ‘Umar, or without such indication, as was the case with Abu Bakr and ‘Ali, or by consultation, 
as was the case with ‘Uthman. When the Umayyads were established, the khalifate became an hereditary 
monarchy.
Its founder of the dynasty enjoined the support of a large group of Muslims whereas the rest of the 
Umayyads assumed the title through inheritance, maintaining that they alone had the right to it without the 
rest of the Muslims having any choice in the matter. This opinion led to disturbances and rebellions 
throughout the Umayyad period. Even at times when people were outwardly quiescent, their hearts were still 
seething with resentment.
The Ansar rebelled against Yazid I, and Madina was plundered by an army which devastated it and did not 
observe its sanctity. Al-Husayn ibn ‘Ali refused to give allegiance, cosidering that to do so was contrary to the 
principles of Islamic law, and he rebelled against the Umayyad ruler. He was slain by Yazid’s men, and his 
sisters, the daughters of Fatima, were taken as captives to Yazid. Zayd ibn ‘Ali was killed as was his son 
Yahya. ‘Abdullah ibn Yahya was also killed. That did not engender love for the Umayyads in people’s hearts. 
The Umayyads had a strong Arab bias. They revived a lot of the pre-Islamic Arab tradition, some of which 
was praiseworthy in itself, but they were excessive in doing it to the point that it became outright racism and 
prejudice against non-Arabs and sanctioned violation of their rights, even though, in the