[507] _Mâlik Ebn Ans_ (see Sale’s Koran, vol. I. p. 206), was born at Medina, according to different accounts, in the years of the Hejira 90, 93, 94 or 95 (A. D. 708, 711, 712, or 713), and died there in the years of the Hejira 177, 178, or 179 (A. D. 793, 794, or 795). This doctor and head of his sect, is said to have paid great regard to the traditions of Muhammed. He was distinguished by the humble confession of his ignorance. Being asked his opinion as to forty-eight questions, his answer to thirty-two of them was, that he did not know.
[508] _Ahmed Ebn Hanbal_ (see Sale’s Koran, vol. I. p. 208) was born in the year of the Hejira 164 (A. D. 780) at Meru, in Khorasan, according to some, or according to others in Baghdad, where he died in the year of the Hejira 241 (A. D. 855). He could repeat no less than a million of Muhammed’s traditions. Refusing to acknowledge the Koran to be created, he was, by order of the Khalif Al Mótasem, severely scourged and imprisoned.
_Ahmed Hanbal_ was the contemporary and friend of _Muhammed Ebn Edris al Shâfei_, the founder of the sect of the _Shafâites_. The latter was born in the year of the Hejira 150 (A. D. 767-8) either at Gaza or at Ascalone, in Palestine, and died in the year of the Hejira 204 (A. D. 819-20), in Egypt. He is said to have been the first who discoursed of jurisprudence, and reduced that science into a method (_ibid._, p. 207).
To the names of the three founders of sects just mentioned, I am to add the name of _Abu Hanîfa al Noman Ebn Thabet_, who was born at Cufa, in the year of the Hejira 80 (A. D. 699), and died in the year 150 (A. D. 767). He is the founder of the sect called the _Hanefites_. This sect is reckoned, in the order of time, the first of the four orthodox sects of the Sonnites, distinguished by the title of “_the followers of reason_,” whilst the other three are called “_the followers of traditions_.” Of these three last, the sect founded by Mâlik Ebn Hans is the second; that instituted by Muhammed Ebn Edris al Shâfei, the third; and that of the followers of Ahmed Ebn Hanbal, the fourth of the orthodox sects, acknowledged by the Sonnites.
[509] _Dáúd Isfahâni_ was born in Cufa, in the year of the Hejira 202 (A. D. 817); he died A. H. 270 (A. D. 883)――(_Abulfeda_, vol. II. p. 261); he was the chief of one of the _six_ orthodox sects of the Muhammedans (see hereafter the enumeration of these sects).