Spread of the Hanafi School of Jurisprudence in Central Asia

Timeline

1. c. 750–767Kufa · IraqAbu Hanifa taught jurisprudence in Kufa, emphasizing reason, analogy, and preference; his pupils Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani systematized the doctrine and won Abbasid court recognition, laying the scholarly foundation for its eastward spread.
2. 901–999Bukhara · UzbekistanThe Samanids vigorously patronized Islamic scholarship in Bukhara; Hanafi jurisprudence entered Central Asia through migrating scholars, merged with local Turkicization, and became the doctrine preferentially applied in the courts of the court-appointed qadis and local judges.
3. 1001–1101Samarkand · UzbekistanThe Ghaznavid dynasty and the Seljuk sultanate established Hanafi jurisprudence as the official doctrine, applying it uniformly in qadi appointments and the compilation of legal digests across their vast Central Asian territories; the school's alliance with the Turkic military elite accelerated its eastward spread.
4. 1211–1220Central Asia · Central AsiaBy the early thirteenth century, Hanafi jurisprudence was the standard doctrine of qadi courts and madrasas across the Islamic lands of Central Asia. Under Khwarazmshah Muhammad II, judges everywhere ruled according to Hanafi legal digests, and Bukhara and Samarkand remained centers of legal teaching until the eve of the Mongol invasion.