of Persian heritage, who was credited by later
generations of legal scholars to be its founder.
The school originated in the turbulent southern
Iraqi city of Kufa, one of the earliest centers of
Islamic learning outside the Arabian Peninsula.
Iraqi legal scholars began to formulate a legal
tradition based on the assertion that their under-
standing of the sUnna (authoritative practice) of
mUhammad was authenticated by the fact that it
had been transmitted to them by the companions
oF the prophet who had come to iraq when it
was first occupied by Arab Muslim forces in the
seventh century. After the qUran, Abu Hanifa
and his circle favored using individual informed
opinion (ray) based on precedent and reason
(ijtihad) rather than strict reliance on the hadith,
about which they were more cautious than their
counterparts in medina. In fact, the Hanafis were
known as the “People of Opinion” and were
opposed by the “People of Hadith.” Abu Yusuf (d.
798) and al-Shaybani (d. 804) were key members
of Abu Hanifa’s circle of disciples who contrib-
uted significantly to the formation of the Hanafi
School. The Abbasid caliphs heeded calls to cre-
ate a more formal legal system and turned to men
of religion to help them do this, which placed
the Iraqi followers of Abu Hanifa in a position
of great influence. Abu Yusuf was appointed to
be the caliph Harun al-Rashid’s legal adviser and
chief judge of Baghdad, and he wrote a book on
taxation and fiscal matters. Al-Shaybani was like-
wise appointed by Harun to be a judge but spent
most of his career as a teacher in baghdad, where
he wrote a number of legal works, which formed
the original core of Hanafi teachings. With the
full support of the Abbasids, the Hanafi School
evolved into an official legal tradition. Abu Hanifa
was given the honorific title “imam” and credited
not only for his own teachings and doctrines but
also for those of his predecessors and successors.
The school has been called the most liberal of the
Sunni madhhabs, especially for the legal doctrines
it espoused in its early years, but it became more
conservative in the later Middle Ages.
From their base in Iraq, the Hanafis established
new branches in the cities and towns of iran,
aFghanistan, and Central Asia during the ninth
century. They were not as successful in syria and
egypt until the Ayyubid dynasty came to power in
the 12th century. In North Africa and andalUsia,
they failed to gain any lasting footholds. However,
after the precedent set by the Abbasids, the Hanafi
School enjoyed the patronage of later Sunni dynas-
ties, such as the Seljuks (1030–1307), Ottomans
(ca. 1300–1922), and Mughals (ca. 1526–1857).
Islamic colleges (madrasas) were established for
the teaching of official Hanafi doctrines and those
of the other major Sunni schools. Such efforts also
resulted in the production of authoritative hand-
books, manuals, commentaries, and compendia
of Hanafi law, such as Ali al-Marghinani’s Hidaya
(12th century), Ibrahim al-Halabi’s Multaqa al-
abhur (16th century) in Ottoman lands, and the
Fatawa-i Alamgiri (17th century) in Mughal india.
Governmental support, coupled with a long tra-
dition of legal learning and commentary, helps
explain the widespread influence the school has
gained in Muslim lands from the eastern Mediter-
ranean region to Central and South Asia. When
these lands were colonized by European countries
in the 19th and 20th centuries, their legal tradi-
tions were seriously undermined by the secular
civil laws promulgated by these new powers. Nev-
ertheless, Hanafi law was subsequently incorpo-
rated into the civil codes of many modern Muslim
countries, particularly in the areas of family law
and ritual. Among the places where Hanafi law is
still operative, even if only in reduced form, are
tUrkey, Syria, lebanon, Israel-Palestine, Jordan,
Iraq, Egypt, eastern Europe, the Caucasus, South
and Central Asia, and Muslim regions of China.
See also abbasid caliphate; colonialism; edU-
cation; fiqh; sharia.Further reading: Wael B. Hallaq, The Origins and Evolu-
tion of Islamic Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2005), 150–177; Joseph Schacht, An Introduction
to Islamic Law (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1966).Hanafi Legal School 287 J