HOW DID THE HANAFI MAZHAB COME TO BOSNIA

INTERPRETATION OF THE SILSILA OF HASAN KAFI AL-AQHISARI

Abstract

It is general knowledge that the spread of Islam in the Ottoman times was accompanied by the spread of the Hanafi school of thought in this region. However, the exact routes of the spread of the Hanafi school to the central part of the Balkans have not been  studied in details. This work attempts to establish those routes by studying the silsila of Hasan Kafi al-Aqhisari (1544-1616), as presented in his book Nizam al-ulama ila Khatam al-anbiya. Textual and historical analysis of the silsila indicate the following route of the transmittance of Islamic knowledge, as interpreted by Hanafi scholars, from Arabia(1/6 century) to Bosnia (10/16 century): Hijaz -Iraq -Transoxania - Cairo -Halab -Anatolia-Istanbul-Bosnia. This conclusion could be further corroborated by the study of biographies of Bosnian ulama of the early Ottoman times and their certificates of competence (ijazat-nama).