The Intellectual Heritage of al-Qaffāl al-Shāshī

This article examines the scholarly career of Abū Bakr al-Qaffāl al-Shāshī (291/904–365/976), focusing on his education under the leading jurists of Baghdād, his pioneering contributions to uṣūl al-fiqh and the science of jadal (dialectics), and the breadth of his literary output. Drawing on mediaeval biographical works and modern scholarship, the study investigates the controversy surrounding his arrival in Baghdād and his relationship with Ibn Surayj, surveys his known works (including his commentary on al-Shāfi'ī's al-Risāla and his independent treatise al-Jadal al-Ḥasan), and assesses his place in the transmission of Shāfi'ī learning into Central Asia. Al-Qaffāl al-Shāshī emerges as a pivotal figure whose work laid the methodological foundations for subsequent generations of Shāfi'ī jurists.

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