This book proposes that late Hanafi legal scholarship in the early modern period secured a role for the Ottoman sultanic authority in the process of lawmaking. It demonstrates that Hanafi jurists sustained and expanded Ottoman sultanic authority through careful reformulations of their own school and their engagement with new notions of governance embraced by the Ottomans.

• Note on Transliteration


• List of Figures


• About the Author


• Introduction


• Chapter 1. Ibn Nujaym: The Father of Late Hanafism?


• Chapter 2. "The Sultan Says": Ottoman Sultanic Authority in Late Hanafi Tradition


• Chapter 3. If Abu Hanifa Were Here: Authority, Continuity, and Revision in Late Hanafi Jurisprudence


• Chapter 4. Ottoman Rationale for Codification: The Mecelle


• Conclusion


• Appendix A. Examples of Early and Late Hanafi Opinions in Ibn Abidin's Hashiya


• Appendix B. Examples of Ma'rudat in al-Haskafi's al-Durr al-Mukhtar


• Appendix C. Examples of Early and Late Hanafi Opinions in Radd al-Muhtar


• Appendix D. Examples of Ma'rudat Abi al-Su'ud in Radd al-Muhtar


• Appendix E. Thematic Tables of the Mecelle Articles


• Bibliography

Samy A. Ayoub is an Assistant Professor of Law and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Texas at Austin.