The ecolization (Schooling) of Hanafi Balkh fiqh

There are regional schools of fiqh within the Hanafi sect. The most ancient of these schools is undoubtedly the Balkh school. Although the school in question contributed to the development of Hanafi jurisprudence both in terms of usul and furu, no studies have been carried out except for a few specific articles. In the study, the issue of whether a regional school was formed in Balkh, including articles dealing with the position of the Balkh school in the case of special customs and ahl al-ray, was examined with the help of the furu fiqh issues mentioned in classical fiqh books. As a result of the study, the existence and independence of the Hanafi Balkh school, which is the oldest regional school within the Hanafi sect in Balkh, has been revealed. Immediately after the formation of the Hanafi sect, and even in the same period, the occurrence of such an independent school was not found strange by the Hanafi sect, and the controversial fiqh issues of the Balkh schoolars (mujtahids) were even mentioned also in the fiqh books of the sect. This shows that, although the schoolars (mujtahids) within the Hanafi sect discussed among themselves scientifically, they did not abandon the friendly relations and mutual respect between them. It has been determined that the Balkh fiqh scholars, while presenting fiqh issues, relied on a different understanding of fiqh metodology from other regions, especially Iraq and Bukhara. It is understood that they took into account the special customs of the town and region they lived while presenting a fiqh ruling. This stands out as a situation that is not accepted by many scholars in the regions of Iraq and Bukhara. It is observed that Nusayr b. Yahya (268/881-2) and Muhammad b. Salama (278/891), the two most influential jurists of Balkh, made changes in rulings on many jurisprudential issues, based on special customs, in a way that other schools of the region did not accept. In fact, the change in the region is not limited to fiqh. Depending on the regional conditions, disciplines such as theology and Sufism have also had their share of this change.