HANAFIYAH

also called Madhhab Hanifah, English Hanafites in Islam, one of the four Sunni schools of religious law, incorporating the legal opinions of the ancient Iraqi schools of al-Kufah and Basra. Hanafi legal thought (madhhab) developed from the teachings of the theologian Imam Abu Hanifah (c. 700767) by such disciples as Abu Yusuf (d. 798) and Muhammad ash-Shaybani (749/750805) and became the official system of Islamic legal interpretation of the 'Abbasids, Seljuqs, and Ottomans. Although the Hanafis acknowledge the Qur'an and Hadith (narratives concerning the Prophet's life and sayings) as primary sources of law, they are noted for the acceptance of personal opinion (ra'y) in the absence of precedent. The school currently predominates in Central Asia, India, Pakistan, Turkey, and the countries of the former Ottoman Empire.