The History of an Islamic School of Law: The Early Spread of Hanafism

Using rich material drawn mainly from medieval Islamic biographical dictionaries, Nurit Tsafrir offers a thorough examination of the first century and a half of the school’s existence, the period during which it took shape.

The Hanafi school of law is one of the oldest legal schools of Islam, coming into existence in the eighth century in Iraq, and surviving up to the present. So closely is the early development of the Hanafi school interwoven with non-legal spheres, such as the political, social, and theological, that the study of it is essential to a proper understanding of medieval Islamic history. Using rich material drawn mainly from medieval Islamic biographical dictionaries, Nurit Tsafrir offers a thorough examination of the first century and a half of the school’s existence, the period during which it took shape. She provides a detailed account of the process by which the school attracted ever more followers and spread over vast geographical areas in the Islamic world empire.

Bibliographic Information

Title: The History of an Islamic School of Law: The Early Spread of Hanafism

Author: Nurit Tsafrir

Publisher: Islamic Legal Studies Program, Harvard Law School

 Language: English

Length: 226 pages

ISBN: 978-0674014565

Pub. Date: July 30, 2004