Imom Buxoriy xalqaro ilmiy-tadqiqot markazi bukhari.uz
Thanks to the precious books written by the famous representatives of the school of Islamic law on legal matters, law schools of Maveraunnahr have been highly appreciated for centuries. As a component part of the legacy left by our great ancestors several centuries ago, they serve as one of the main factors in the life of the Central Asian people. Among them, we can mention such lawyers from ancient Shash as Abu Bakr Qaffal ash-Shashi who made a substantial contribution to this heritage, especially to the development of the legal sciences.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mustazkhiri ash-Shashi was the leader of lawyers in Baghdad who earned a status of “Fakhr al-Islam” (The pride of Islam). He came to Baghdad, studied the law there from the famous lawyers of that time such as Abu Is’haq Shirazi and Abu Nasr ibn as-Sabbag, and reached the status of a well-known Imam.
An outstanding Islamist Rizauddin Fakhriddin wrote in his book “Imam Ghazzali” that Abu Bakr Shashi had lived in the time of such famous scholars as Abu Is’haq Shirazi, Abulqasim Qushayri, Hariri, Abu Is’haq Vahidi, Abulmahasin Ruyani, Khatib Tabrizi, Khatib Baghdadi, Qazi Bayzavi, etc.
As is known from the history, a great vizier of the Seljuks Nizam-ul-Mulk made orders to build madrasahs in some big cities under the name of Nizamiya. He did the same in Baghdad and this madrasah became a noticeable Academy of Sciences in its time. This madrasah was so marvellous and big in the area that students used to come here to study and get education not only from the cities of Maveraunnahr such as Tashkent, Samarkand and Bukhara but also from Khorasan and Shash. The madrasah was a two-storied building where around four hundred students were seated and such subjects as logic, lexicology, lexicography, grammar and moral were taught.
Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shashi studied at Nizamiya Madrasah in Baghdad. Having graduated from the madrasah, he was appointed as Head Master of the Academy. In the madrasah, he became acquainted with the leading experts of sciences and had debates with them on different subjects of science and education. A famous philosopher Abu Hamid Ghazzali (1059-1111), Abu Is’haq Shirazi (died in 1083) and Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shashi worked as teachers and lecturers at Nizamiya Madrasah at the same time.
In the Middle Ages (the 9th-12th centuries), Baghdad was the main centre of science and education where several scholars under the title (penname) of “Shashi” lived and created scientific works. Among them,we can see a famous expert in the science of Hadiths Abu Said al-Haysam ibn Qulayb Shashi, Ja’far ibn Shuayb Shashi, Muhammad ibn Yahya ibn Zakariyya ash-Shashi, Al-Hasan ibn Sahib Shashi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Hamid ash-Shashi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Is’haq Abu Ali Shashi, etc. There they not only studied different subjects that were popular at that time but also became famous as scholars, scientists and experts in different branches of science and education. In this article, we are going to speak about Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shashi who was born in the oasis of Shash, grew up in Baghdad and reached the status of “Great Imam” and for a definite period of time served as chairman of lawyers in Baghdad.
A great Imam, genius and lawyer of his time Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shashi was famous as “the pride of Islam”. A historian Tajiddin Subki writes that “he was a devoted believer and faithful Muslim and his name was famous among the people”. Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shashi was born in a small village called Mayafariqin near Shash in the month of Muharram in 429/1038. His ancestors were also from Shash valley. He received the primary education on law in Mayafariqin from Muhammad ibn Bayan al-Kazruvni and from the judge (qazi) of Mayafariqin Abu Mansur at-Tusi Sheikh Abu Muhammad al-Juvayni. Before the death of his teacher Sheikh al-Kazruvni, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad Shashi visited Iraq and came to Baghdad. Soon he became acquainted with the famous and leading scholar of his time Sheikh Abu Is’haq Shirazi and attended his lessons. Alongside with it, he steadily studied law from Abu Nasr ibn as-Sabbag and reached degree of a well-known Imam.
He studied the science of Hadiths from well-known experts in the science of Hadiths such as Muhammad ibn Bayan al-Kazruvni, Qasim ibn Ahmad al-Hayat, Abu Bakr al-Khatib, Abu Is’haq ash-Shirazi, Abu Ja’far Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Muslim, Abu al-Ghanaim ibn al-Ma’mun, Abu Ya’la ibn al-Farra and in Mecca, he studied Hadiths from Khiyaj ibn Muhammad al-Khittini. Abu al-Muammar al-Azji, Ab-l-Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad al-Yazdi, Abu Bakr an-Naqur, Abu Tahir as-Salafi and others cited Hadiths from him.
