ḤANᾹBILAH (sg., Ḥanbālī) is the name used to denote the followers of Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal, just as the names Shāfiʿīyah, Mālikīyah, and Ḥanafīyah are used to denote the followers of al-Shāfiʿī, Mālik, and Abū Ḥanīfah, respectively. Of these four groups, the Ḥanābilah has been considered anomalous, and rightly so, although not for the reasons usually given. Western writers have reiterated that this group was the smallest of the four; that it fought against the theology of kalām, which is quite true; that it fought against Sufism, which is definitely false. It is clear that the Ḥanābilah fought against philosophical theology (kalām) and philosophical Sufism (monism, incarnationism), but certainly not against theology in its juridical form, nor against Sufism in its traditionalist, ascetic form. Some writers...