Open lecture on the topic “Contributions of Central Asian scholars to the Development of Islamic Law (Hanafi School) and Islamic Studies”

On June 11, 2018, Docent of the UNESCO Chair on International Law and Human Rights under the UWED, PhD in International Law Khaydarali Yunusov gave open lecture on the topic “Contributions of Central Asian scholars to the Development of Islamic Law (Hanafi School) and Islamic Studies” at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies of Oxford University, UK. The lecture in the form of seminar took place in the famous “Bukhara” room. The professors, researchers, experts and students from around the world actively participated in this thought-provoking event. The innovative, interpretative, norm-forming and general awareness-raising contributions of the Central Asian scholars and applicability of these contributions into practice have been discussed in the follow-up answer-questions section.

 

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For Central Asia and, particularly, Uzbekistan is frequently referred to as “Homeland or grew-up place of Islamic sciences and civilization”. Our ancestors highly proved it. The name of more than 2,700 scholars and ulama originated from Central Asia were mentioned in the different Arabic sources. Of course, on the top of list is always the name of Imam Bukhari and Imam at-Termizi. Needless to repeat that Hadiths of Bukhari is considered to be the most important source after Qur’an but majority don’t know what the strength of the Sahihi Bukhari resides in? Ibn Sina, known as “Avicenna” in the West, enormously contributed to the development of medical sciences with “al-Qanun fi-t-Tibb”. His book was reprinted in Rome as late as 1593, was used at Lӧwen University for 600 years, until 1650, and Thomas Aquinas quoted Ibn Sina more than 400 times. Al-Farabi, called as the “Second teacher”, immensely contributed to the development of the Islamic philosophy. “Al-Hidayah” of Imam Burkhaniddin Marghinani has been the most popular book in the entire Islamic legal literature. American jurist-scholar Roscoe Pound says that “Al-Hidayah” is the beginning of the case study method of studying law”. He completed the book in thirteen (13) years. Throughout this period he continued to fast!!! Abu Rayhan al-Biruni discovered Amerika long before Turkish sailors and Christopher Columbus theorizing the existence of a landmass along the ocean between Asia and Europe in his “Codex Masudicus” (1037); He was given the title “founder of Indology” for his remarkable description of India in early 11th-century in his “Kitab al-Hind”. He is also regarded as the “father of geodesy” for his important contributions to that field; and, finally, Uzbekistan is, apparently, the Homeland of International Law thanks to formidable scholar Muhammad ibn Ahmad Sarakhsi, so-called as Hugo Grotius of the Muslims who by interpreting Shaybani`s book Kitab al-Siyar al-Kabir through application of juristic preference doctrine, sets forth the Siyar (International Law) as an autonomous and legitimate discipline within the framework of shari`a law (by Husain Kassim, 1939; and Hans Kruse, 1955).