Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi ( ar, أبو الْيُسر الْبَزْدَوي) (c.1030-c.1100), who was given the honorific title of ''Sadr al-Islam'', was a prominent Central Asian
Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...
-
Maturidi
Māturīdī theology or Māturīdism ( ar, الماتريدية: ''al-Māturīdiyyah'') is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Persian Muslim scholar, Ḥanafī jurist, reformer (''Mujaddid''), and scholastic th ...
scholar and a
qadi
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
(judge) in
Samarqand
fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zin ...
in the late eleventh century. He was a teacher to several well-known Hanafi scholars, such as
Najm al-Din 'Umar al-Nasafi
Najm ad-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ 'Umar ibn Muḥammad an-Nasafī ( ar, نجم الدين أبو حفص عمر بن محمد النسفي; 1067–1142) was a Muslim jurist, theologian, mufassir, muhaddith and historian. A Persian scholar born in pr ...
and 'Ala' al-Din al-Samarqandi (who was a teacher to
Al-Kasani
'Ala' al-Din al-Kasani ( ar, علاء الدين الكاساني), known as Al-Kasani or al-Kashani, was a 12th Century Sunni Muslim Jurist who became an influential figure of the Hanafi school of Sunni jurisprudence, which has remained the ...
).
Name
Abu al-Yusr Muhammad b. Muhammad b. al-Hussein b. 'Abd al-Karim b. Musa b. Mujahid al-Nasafi al-Bazdawi.
The attribution al-Bazdawi indicates that he or his family originated from Bazda or Bazdawa, a small town with a castle on the road between
Nasaf
Qarshi ( uz, Qarshi/Қарши, ; fa, نخشب ''Nakhshab'') is a city in southern Uzbekistan. It is the capital of Qashqadaryo Region. Administratively, Qarshi is a district-level city, that includes the urban-type settlement Qashqadaryo. It ...
and
Bukhara
Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
.
He was the younger brother of
Fakhr al-Islam Abu al-Hassan al-Bazdawi, the author of ''Kanz al-Wusul'', also known as ''Usul al-Bazdawi''.
Birth
He was born around the year 421 A.H. (1030 A.D.) and received his earliest education in
Maturidism disciplines from his father. His grandfather Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Karim b. Musa al-Bazdawi (d. 390 AH/1000–1001 CE), who was a student of
al-Maturidi
Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Ḥanafī al-Māturīdī al-Samarḳandī ( fa, أبو منصور محمد بن محمد بن محمود الماتریدي السمرقندي الحنفي; 853–944 CE), often referred t ...
, and his elder brother
Fakhr al-Islam 'Ali b. Muhammad al-Bazdawi (d. 482–483 AH/1089–1090 CE) were leading Hanafi scholars and wrote many books.
Teachers
* Shams al-A'imma 'Abd al-'Aziz al-Halwai (d. 456/1064) who was also a teacher to
Al-Sarakhsi
Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Abi Sahl Abu Bakr al-Sarakhsi ( fa, محمد بن احمد بن ابي سهل ابو بكر السرخسي), was a Persian jurist and also an Islamic scholar of the Hanafi school of thought. He was traditionally known as Sham ...
.
[Hanif, Sohail, 2019, "Al-Hadith al-Mashhur: A Hanafi Reference to Kufan Practice?", in ''Locating the Shari'a: Legal Fluidity in Theory, History and Practice'' by Sohaira Siddiqui (ed.), Brill Publications, Leiden, 2019.]
*
Fakhr al-Islam al-Bazdawi (d. 482 AH) who was his elder brother.
Students
Some of his well known students were
Najm al-Din 'Umar al-Nasafi
Najm ad-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ 'Umar ibn Muḥammad an-Nasafī ( ar, نجم الدين أبو حفص عمر بن محمد النسفي; 1067–1142) was a Muslim jurist, theologian, mufassir, muhaddith and historian. A Persian scholar born in pr ...
and 'Ala' al-Din al-Samarqandi (who was a teacher to
'Ala' al-Din al-Kasani).
Works
He was the author of several works on law, including a commentary on the major work of
Abu Hanifa
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān ( ar, نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان; –767), commonly known by his '' kunya'' Abū Ḥanīfa ( ar, أبو حنيفة), or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Mus ...
, after whom the
Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named aft ...
school was named, and a commentary on a work of Abu Hanifa's student
Muhammad al-Shaybani
Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan ibn Farqad ash-Shaybānī ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن الحسن بن فرقد الشيباني; 749/50 – 805), the father of Muslim international law, was an Arab jurist and a dis ...
, who was one of the founders of the Hanafi school.
The most important of his books which remain is Kitab Usul al-Din (edited with a biographical introduction by
Hans-Peter Linss).
Al-Bazdawi’s Kitab Usul al-Din, as described by Hans-Peter Linss, comprises:
# a short review of all literature of the heretics on dogma and
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
in
Islam
Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
;
# a Hanafi-
Sunni
Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
orthodoxy defence against the dissenting opinions and teachings of the heretical sects; and
# a study on the heterodox factions in Islam, their subdivisions and their most important leaders.
Al-Bazdawi was also the author of ''Ma'rifat al-Hujaj al-Shar'iyya'' ( ar, معرفة الحجج الشرعية) in
Usul al-Fiqh
Principles of Islamic jurisprudence, also known as ''uṣūl al-fiqh'' ( ar, أصول الفقه, lit. roots of fiqh), are traditional methodological principles used in Islamic jurisprudence (''fiqh'') for deriving the rulings of Islamic law ('' ...
.
Dr. Haytham Abdul-Hamid Khazna ( ar, هيثم عبد الحميد خزنة) said in his book ''Tatawur al-Fikr al-Usuli al-Hanafi'' ( ar, تطور الفكر الأصولي الحنفي) that this book should not be attributed to Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi, because the books of Tarajim (biographies and bibliographies) didn't mention it, and because the book is weak in style analysis.
Death
After serving for a period of time as a magistrate in
Samarqand
fa, سمرقند
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = City
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from the top: Registan square, Shah-i-Zinda necropolis, Bibi-Khanym Mosque, view inside Shah-i-Zin ...
, he eventually moved to
Bukhara
Bukhara (Uzbek language, Uzbek: /, ; tg, Бухоро, ) is the List of cities in Uzbekistan, seventh-largest city in Uzbekistan, with a population of 280,187 , and the capital of Bukhara Region.
People have inhabited the region around Bukhara ...
and died there in 493 A.H. (1100 A.D.).
See also
*
Abu Hanifa
Nuʿmān ibn Thābit ibn Zūṭā ibn Marzubān ( ar, نعمان بن ثابت بن زوطا بن مرزبان; –767), commonly known by his '' kunya'' Abū Ḥanīfa ( ar, أبو حنيفة), or reverently as Imam Abū Ḥanīfa by Sunni Mus ...
*
Abu Mansur al-Maturidi
Abū Manṣūr Muḥammad b. Muḥammad b. Maḥmūd al-Ḥanafī al-Māturīdī al-Samarḳandī ( fa, أبو منصور محمد بن محمد بن محمود الماتریدي السمرقندي الحنفي; 853–944 CE), often referred t ...
*
Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi
Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi ( uz, Абул-Муин ан-Насафи; ar, أبو المعين النسفي), was considered to be the most important Central Asian Hanafi theologian in the Maturidite school of Sunni Islam after Imam Abu Mansur al-M ...
*
List of Hanafis
The following is the list of notable religious personalities who followed the Hanafi Islamic madhab followed by the section of Contemporary living Hanafi scholars, in chronological order:
*Abu Hanifa (d. 767)
*Ibn al-Mubarak (d. 797)
*Abu Yusuf (d ...
*
List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
The list of Ash'aris and Maturidis includes prominent adherents of the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools of thought. The Ash'aris are a doctrinal school of thought named after Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, and the Maturidi school is named for Abu Mansu ...
*
List of Muslim theologians
This is a list of notable Muslim theologians.
Traditional Theologians and Philosophers Ash'aris and Maturidis
* Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari
* Abu Mansur al-Maturidi
* Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi
* Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi
* Shahab_al-Din_Abu_Hafs_Um ...
References
External links
Islamic Pedia - Abu al-Yusr al-BazdawiEbü’l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî
(Usul-üd-Din) Ebü’l-Yüsr el-Pezdevî’nin (ö. 493/1100) kelâma dair eseri
{{Authority control
Hanafis
Maturidis
11th-century Muslim theologians
Sunni imams
Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Hanafi fiqh scholars
Uzbekistani Muslims
1030s births
1100 deaths