Hanafi

The Hanafi (Arabic: حنفي) is one of the four schools of jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It is the oldest of the four schools (madh'habs) of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) in Sunni Islam and was founded by Abu Hanifa. Hanafi legal theory primarily derives law from the Quran, the sayings and practices of Muhammad (sunnah), scholarly consensus (ijma) and analogical reasoning (qiyas), but also considers juristic discretion (istihsan) and local customs (urf). It is distinctive in its greater usage of qiyas than other schools.

The school spread throughout the Muslim world under the patronage of various Islamic empires, including the Abbasids and Seljuks. The Central Asian region of Khorasan emerged as a centre of classical Hanafi scholarship between the 10th and 12th centuries, which gave rise to the Maturidi school of theology. The Ottoman Empire adopted Hanafism as its official state school of law and influenced the legal Maturidi thought of the school, eventually codifying it as the Mecelle in the 1870s.

Followers of the Hanafi school are called Hanafis, who are estimated to comprise one third of all Muslims. It is the largest Islamic school in the regions of the Balkans, Central Asia, Anatolia, the Levant, Afghanistan, and South Asia, in the latter of which it is mainly split between the Barelvi and Deobandi movements.