ABA (or rather ABAU) HANIFAR or HANFA, sur-named Al-Nooma, was the son of Thabet, and born at Coufah, in the 80th year of the Hegira. He is the most celebrated doctor of the orthodox Mussulmans, and his sect is the most esteemed of the four which they indifferently follow. Almansor caused him to be imprisoned at Bagdad, for having refused to subscribe to the opinion of absolute predestination, which the Mussulmans call Cadha; but afterwards Abou Joseph, who was the sovereign judge or chancellor of the empire under the caliph Hadi, brought his doctrine into such credit, that it became a prevailing opinion, that to be a good Mussulman was to be a Hanife. He died in the 150th year of the Hegira, in the prison of Bagdad; and it was not till 335 years after his death, that Melick Schah, a sultan of the Selgiucidan race, erected to his memory a magnificent monument in the same city, and a college for his followers, in the 485th year of the Hegira, and anno Christi 1092.