The four Sunni legal schools Hanafi Maliki Shafi‘i and Hanbali constitute the supporting structure of classical Sunni Islamic law and represent one of the most enduring forms of methodological diversity within Islam. They took shape between the eighth and ninth centuries in a period in which the Islamic empire expanded from Central Asia to the Atlantic and crossed societies cultures and normative systems that differed greatly from one another. The central need was a single one interpret the Qur’anic revelation and the Prophetic tradition in a coherent way preserving the authority of the texts while at the same time allowing a realistic application in increasingly complex contexts. The four schools did not arise as rival groups or as religious parties competing for power but as geographically and intellectually diversified responses to a common problem which consisted in transforming a set of revelations and traditions into a legal system applicable to vast and articulated societies. The Hanafi school the oldest emerged in Kufa an urban and intellectual environment marked by Persian Aramaic and Arab influences. Abu Hanifa 699–767 merchant and theologian worked in a city characterized by political controversies divergent theological movements and a considerable variety of new legal cases. In this context he developed a method based on rational evaluation on the use of analogy and on a strong principle of equity. The Hanafi school soon became the preferred one of the Abbasid bureaucracy due to its flexibility and later it was adopted as the official school of the Ottoman Empire spreading across Anatolia the Balkans the Caucasus Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Its methodology capable of integrating new cases and complex contexts made it one of the most dynamic legal traditions in the Islamic world. The Maliki school instead became rooted in Medina around the figure of Malik ibn Anas 711–795 author of the renowned al Muwatta one of the earliest systematic works of law and traditions. Unlike the approach of Kufa Malik considered the practice of the Medinan community viewed as the direct heir of the Prophet’s environment as an interpretative criterion of absolute authority. In a period in which the memory of the first generations was still alive this method gave the school a deeply traditional and concrete character. Its diffusion took place mainly through trade and migrations across North Africa where Aghlabid Almoravid and Almohad rulers promoted it as their preferred school. The Maliki tradition thus became rooted in the Maghreb the Sahara and West Africa adapting to tribal contexts and to local legal systems and becoming a key element of African Islamic identity. The Shafi‘i school arose from the methodological genius of Muhammad ibn Idris al Shafi‘i 767–820 a central figure in the history of Islamic law. Formed in both Maliki and Hanafi circles al Shafi‘i developed a theoretical framework in which the foundations of the law were for the first time systematized with clarity the Qur’an the Sunna the consensus of the community and analogy. His work al Risala is considered the first major text of Islamic legal theory. Reconciling Prophetic tradition and methodological reasoning was the great contribution of the Shafi‘i school which found fertile ground in the mercantile societies of Egypt the Horn of Africa Yemen and the Indian Ocean. Its diffusion along commercial routes carried the school to Indonesia and Malaysia where it remains the dominant tradition today. The Hanbali school finally was shaped in the environment of Baghdad around the figure of Ahmad ibn Hanbal 780–855 known for his textual rigor and for his defense of the Prophetic tradition during the famous mihna the theological inquisition imposed by the Abbasid caliphs. Ibn Hanbal though he did not compose a systematic legal work left a vast legacy of opinions and teachings that his students organized into a coherent school. The Hanbali approach was characterized by minimal use of analogy a strong centrality of hadith and a diffidence toward speculative forms of interpretation. For centuries a minority the school became influential mainly in the central regions of the Arabian Peninsula where its doctrinal rigor was valued in Bedouin societies and in frontier environments. In the modern period the Wahhabi reform expanded its presence yet the identity of the school remains tied to the classical and independent legacy of Ibn Hanbal. These four traditions never conceived of themselves as alternative visions of Islam but as different interpretative instruments for a shared revelation. For more than twelve centuries they have coexisted within the Sunni world often present in the same city and the same religious institution. Judges of various regions though belonging to a specific school always recognized the legitimacy of the others and during periods of greater intellectual openness comparative manuals were written to analyze the positions of the four traditions in order to orient oneself in the most complex cases. The equilibrium between text and reason between tradition and context and between rigor and adaptation allowed these schools to cross political and cultural eras that differed drastically from one another while maintaining their role as pillars of Sunni jurisprudence. Through history the Hanafi school dominated the former Ottoman Empire and Central Asia the Maliki school became rooted in the Maghreb and sub Saharan regions the Shafi‘i school spread along the Indian Ocean through mercantile networks and the Hanbali school consolidated itself mainly in the inner areas of the Arabian Peninsula. This geographical distribution which remained largely stable bears witness to the ability of the schools to adapt to social structures political powers and cultural models of the regions in which they spread. The four legal schools are not only normative systems of the past but structures that are still alive today studied in religious centers applied in courts and transmitted to new generations as examples of how a revelation can be translated into coherent legal forms without abandoning interpretative plurality. They reflect one of the distinctive characteristics of classical Islam the capacity to be a single religious tradition capable of sustaining different methodological approaches brought into harmony by the shared conviction that the truth of divine law is expressed through the convergence of multiple interpretative paths rather than through absolute uniformity.
Roberto Minichini January 2026
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