Ekmeluddîn Bābertī's view of madhhab and ijtihad

Hanefî Ekmeluddîn Bâbertî (ö. 786/1384), one of the Hanafi scholars, is an important scholar in the restructuring of fiqh in Islamic thought, and he put forward his views as the renewal and defense of Hanafism. Bâbertî, who has an instructive and defensive understanding of fiqh, has an important place among the scholars of the Hanafi sect. In his works and treatises, he argued that this sect should be preferred and imitated. There is no understanding of ijtihad other than the madhhab. In Bâbertî's understanding of sect and ijtihad, a defensive attitude dominates against the accusations of trying to teach the universal law of Hanafism and of being a voter. He defended the superiority of the Hanafi sect; therefore, he played an important role in the adoption of Hanafism not only as a sect but as an Islamic thought in the Ottoman Empire and the Islamic world in general.