When we speak of the Hanafi madhhab, we often think of it simply as “the largest school of Islamic law.” But behind this label lies a vast intellectual history: thousands of scholars, tens of thousands of texts, manuscripts scattered across libraries from Istanbul to Delhi, Cairo to St. Petersburg, and networks of teaching and debate stretching across more than a millennium.
And yet, despite the richness of this tradition, we still do not have a comprehensive bibliographical map of the Hanafi school. We have fragments: Brockelmann’s Geschichte der arabischen Litteratur, some regional studies, individual catalogues. But what is missing is a systematic, modern, and global attempt to bring it all together.
That is what I am trying to build: Bibliographia Hanafica.
What is Bibliographia Hanafica?
At its heart, it is both simple and ambitious:
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A reference work that lists Hanafi scholars, their works, and the genres they contributed to.
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Organized chronologically, geographically, and thematically.
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Supported by a modern research apparatus: indices, maps, bibliographies, and digital tools.
The final product will look like the great bibliographical reference works of the world – think of Brill’s Handbook of Oriental Studies or Brepols’ encyclopedic projects – but dedicated entirely to the Hanafi legal-intellectual tradition.
Why is this important?
The Hanafi school shaped law, politics, and society across the Islamic world for over a thousand years. It was the official legal school of the Abbasids, Seljuks, Ottomans, and Mughals. It defined how judges ruled in Bukhara and Cairo, how contracts were written in Samarqand and Delhi, how inheritance was divided in Damascus and Istanbul.
Yet today, when researchers or students want to trace Hanafi law, they face a fragmented landscape:
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scattered biographical dictionaries,
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unindexed manuscript catalogues,
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and a patchwork of modern studies.
Bibliographia Hanafica will bring coherence to this scattered field. It will allow us to see the tradition as a whole – how scholars interacted, how genres evolved, how texts circulated.
How will it be organized?
The structure follows three main parts:
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Scholars – listed chronologically, by region, and by genre. Each entry will include biography, works, networks of teachers and students, and the state of modern scholarship.
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Works – arranged by chronology, geography, and genre. Each entry will cover manuscripts, editions, translations, and influence.
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Genres – tracing the evolution of Hanafi legal genres: furuʿ al-fiqh, usul al-fiqh, fatawa, shurut, faraʾid, adab al-qadi, siyar, and others.
Supplementary sections will cover intellectual networks, legal institutions, and comparisons with other madhhabs.
And the reference apparatus will include indices of names, titles, places, as well as chronological tables and maps of manuscript circulation.
How am I doing this?
This is not a solitary library project. It is a digital humanities project. I am building a database from the start:
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Each scholar is entered with fields for name, date, region, genre, works, sources.
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Each work is tracked across manuscripts, editions, translations.
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Each genre is tagged for cross-reference.
This means that Bibliographia Hanafica will not only appear as a printed reference book, but also as a digital platform: searchable, expandable, and connected to manuscript catalogues worldwide.
Why blog about it?
Because projects like this only come alive when they are shared in public.
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I want to document the process: the small victories of finding a rare manuscript, the puzzles of conflicting dates, the excitement of mapping a forgotten scholar.
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I want to make this journey transparent: to show how bibliographical work is actually done, step by step.
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And I want to invite others in: scholars, students, institutions, and anyone interested in the intellectual heritage of Islam.
How you can follow and support
On this blog, you will find different kinds of posts:
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Research diary entries: what I worked on this week, what problems I faced.
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Scholar spotlights: short introductions to key figures of the Hanafi tradition.
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Manuscript journeys: stories from catalogues and libraries.
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Genre explanations: accessible introductions to Hanafi legal categories.
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Behind-the-scenes: how I use databases, digital mapping, and network analysis.
Over time, these posts will accumulate into a public record of the making of Bibliographia Hanafica.
And if you would like to support this project – whether through scholarly collaboration, funding, or simply spreading the word – please reach out at aibek.ahmedov@gmail.com
Looking ahead
The road ahead is long. Building a comprehensive bibliographical reference of the Hanafi school will take years. But I believe it is worth it.
Because every manuscript recorded, every forgotten scholar traced, every genre mapped – brings us closer to understanding one of the most influential legal traditions in human history.
Welcome to Bibliographia Hanafica.
Let’s build it together.