Death of Imam Abū Ḥanīfah

Abū Ḥanīfah al-Nuʿmān ibn Thābit, the jurist of Kūfah whose method of systematic hypotheticals and analogy became the seed of the largest legal school in Islam, died in Baghdad in Rajab 150 — in al-Manṣūr's prison, or days after release, for refusing the caliph's judgeship. The silk merchant who would not be the state's judge was buried in the Khayzurān cemetery, where his shrine still stands.

The biographers loved the symmetry that al-Shāfiʿī was born in the year he died. His students Abū Yūsuf and Muḥammad al-Shaybānī — who did accept the judgeships — codified the school that now counts the most followers of any madhhab.

The month varies between Rajab and Shaʿbān in the sources; Rajab predominates, and no day is agreed.