The critiques of al-Bayhaqi towards Hanafis in his book al-Hilafiyyat

Al-Bayhaqi, in his book al-Hilafiyyat, has gathered hadiths regarding the matters on which Hanafi`s and Shafii`s are on a collision course. He has evaluated these hadiths from the point of sanad and text. While the author has laid stress on the correctness of hadiths that are used by Shafii`s, on the other hand, he has tried to reveal the non-practicality of the hadiths used by Hanafis as evidence. In this work, the critiques of al-Bayhaqi, who accuses Hanafi`s as "unreceptive to hadiths" and "narrators, favorably to their madhab" are determined from the relevant book and evaluated under separate titles. Moreover, this study tries to reveal the place of the book in Khilaf literature which is discussed in its first chapter from different perspectives.