Ibrāhīm al-Naḫa‛ī, his juristic approach and its effect on Hanafi school of law

Ibrāhīm al-Naḫa‛ī is one of the successor scholars who lived in Kufa between the years 47/667-96/714. Although he was acquainted with the sciences such as exegesis, hadith and qira'at, he was famous for his multiple and original ideas related to jurisprudence. al-Naḫa‛ī did not convey the knowledge he received from the scholars before him as a simple narrator, but he developed and enriched it as a mujtahid and conveyed it to those who sought knowledge in that way. While he was coming up with solutions to the questions and problems, as much as possible he gave a wide place to ra'y besides the text, therefore he was accepted as the founder of Kufa ra'y school. al-Naḫa‛ī also has an important position as a link of Hanafi School of Law which goes back to the Prophet. In this sense, he became a scholar whose narrations, views and thoughts were valued by the Hanafite scholars, especially Abû Hanîfah, and they frequently cited his name in their works. In this study, the life of al-Naḫa‛ī, the period in which he lived, his understanding of methodology of Islamic Law, the characteristic structure of his jurisprudence, his scholarly relations with Abû Hanîfa, Abû Yûsuf and Imam Muhammad, the founding scholars of the Hanafite school, are handled, and his views are discussed in comparison with the mentioned imams and Hanafite scholars in general.