Abū Bakr al-Khaffāf and His Thought of Uṣūl al-Fiqh

Abstract

Abū Bakr al-Khaffāf is one of the Shāfi‘ī scholars who lived in the Iraqi region in the fourth/tenth century. The region of Iraq became one of the important centers of attraction for the Shāfi‘ī madhhab in those times, and leading jurists of the madhhab, particularly ‘Abū'l-‘Abbās Ibn Surayj and his stu-dents, began to appear in this region. Being one of the centers of many theological and philosophical movements, the Iraqi region left an impact on the thoughts of the early Iraqi Shāfi‘īs. An important indication of this is Abū Bakr al-Khaffāf, about whom there is little information in both classical and modern sources. In the introduction of his concise work titled al-Aqsām wa-l-khiṣāl in the field of fiqh, he briefly addresses the main issues of fiqh. Al-Khaffāf's inclusion of fiqh methodology in this particular work is noteworthy in that it reflects the theological perspective that was popular among Shāfi‘ī scholars of his time, as well as providing important data on the development of Shāfi‘ī fiqh method after Shāfi‘ī. This study aims not only to show this impact and but also to introduce this Shāfi‘ī jurist and his methodical thought, neglected in both classical and modern sources.

Keywords

• şâfiî mezhebi
• irak bölgesi
• fıkıh usûlü
• ebû bekir el-ḫaffâf
• el-aḳsâm ve’l-ḫiṣâl
• shāfi‘ī school
• iraqi region
• uṣūl al-fiqh
• abū bakr al-khaffāf
• al-aqsām wa-l-khiṣāl