Marife Dini Araştırmalar Dergisi

Öz

The political turmoil in the last half of the 6th (12th AD) and the first half of the 7th (13th AD) century in the Islamic world and the approaching Mongol threat caused the ulama to migrate to the west. Thus, Damascus and Cairo became vibrant centers of ilm that included all four madhahib. Despite these confusions, it is seen that literary enterprises continue intensively. Hanbali jurists who immigrated from Baghdad and Jerusalem and settled in the center of Damascus and the Salihiyya region at the foot of Mount Kasyun also engaged in intense work in terms of literary enterprise. Hanbalis, who produced works in different types of literature, wrote treatises and books on spesific subjects of fiqh, along with works containing general fiqh issues. The determination of this literature, revealing its characteristics and an evaluation of their interests are important because they provide clues about the nature of the fiqh activities of the Hanbalis and the agenda of the ulama living in the said period and in the region.
The presence of Hanbalis in Damascus can be traced back to the 3rd (9th) century. But until the second half of the 5th (11th) century, it is difficult to say that Hanbalis had a regular scholarly activity there. The first significant activity in this regard started with the migration of the Shirazi family to Damascus in the second half of the 5th (11th) century. The Shirazi family formed a regular class circle belonging to the Hanbalis in Damascus and started to build a madrasah where teaching activities could be carried out. Thus, the madhhab started to gain stability in Damascus and found a suitable environment for scholarly activities to be carried out.
Hanbali ulama in Damascus wrote works on many fields of fiqh. In this period, besides the works in the field of “füru” and “usul”, which are the two main disciplines of fiqh, boks and treaties related to khilaf was also on the agenda of Hanbali scholars, and even these literary activities were further specialized and works that dealt with a subject covered in fiqh works independently emerged. In addition, the literary activities in this period included the works of an independent nature, as well as the types of commentary (sharh) and annotation (hashiya) that were revealed by putting different Works in the center of the study.
Among the works written in the mentioned time, the most striking ones are the works of furu fiqh. In terms of scope, some of these works are compendiums written for practical purposes, for example, to be used in teaching activities. Some of them are encyclopedic works that contain the views of other madhahib besides the Hanbali madhhab. In addition to these, there are also works that present the issues of fiqh as poetry and collect the narrations about the ahkam. Despite the fact that works on the usul al-fiqh were also written in the aforementioned period, the usul al-fiqh had a lower density compared to the furu fiqh, both in terms of literary activities and the place it occupied on the scholarly agenda. Despite this, it is possible to say that a more positive attitude towards the usul al-fiqh has developed when compared to the previous period. In addition, letters and fatwas that were transmitted in the sources were evaluated as literature and included in the study as they could reflect the scholarly discussions of the period.
In terms of content, works that focus on a spesific issue, fatwas, and letters provide clues about the lively discussion areas of the period. In addition, it seems that the conflicts between Hanbalis and Ash‘aris based on previous periods were effective in the emergence of the aforementioned discussions and works. When we look at the references to names and works, it is seen that Khiraqi continued his influence before Ibn Qudama for a while, and Ibn Qudama became active with the works he wrote. In terms of usul al-fiqh, the references to Farra have had a more dominant density than Kalwadhani and Ibn Aqil, who wrote on usul al-fiqh in the previous periods.