Hafiz al-Din Abu al-Barakat al-Nasafi
- Died
- 710 AH
- Born in
- -
Hafiz al-Din Abu al-Barakat al-Nasafi (d. 710 AH / 1310 CE) was a Hanafi jurist, legal theorist, and Quran commentator from Transoxiana, renowned for his foundational texts in jurisprudence and legal theory.
Life and education
His full name was Abdullah ibn Ahmad ibn Mahmud, and he was known by the kunya Abu al-Barakat and the honorific title Hafiz al-Din. His nisba refers to the city of Nasaf in the region of Sogdia in Transoxiana, near Samarkand.
Al-Nasafi studied Hanafi law under prominent regional authorities, including Shams al-A'immah al-Kardari, Hamid al-Din al-Darir, and Badr al-Din Khawahir Zadah. Biographical records also note a transmission of al-Ziyadat through Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Ittabi, though later scholars such as Mahmud ibn Sulayman al-Kafawi observed that direct transmission is chronologically impossible given al-Ittabi's death in 586 AH. Among his notable students who transmitted from him was the jurist Husam al-Din al-Sighnaqi. In 710 AH, al-Nasafi traveled westward and visited Baghdad.
Scholarly standing
Al-Nasafi was regarded as one of the leading figures of the late classical Hanafi school, noted for his piety, asceticism, and mastery across substantive law, legal theory, and Quranic exegesis. Biographers praised his writing for its extreme density, precision, and balanced synthesis of theological argument and legal derivation. His Quranic commentary, Madarik al-Tanzil wa-Haqa'iq al-Ta'wil, offered an intermediate-length exposition that harmonized linguistic analysis with Sunni theological doctrine while refuting Mu'tazilite views. In legal studies, his concise compendium Kanz al-Daqaiq became one of the standard relied-upon manuals of Hanafi jurisprudence, and his treatise Manar al-Anwar served as a widely taught primer on legal theory.
Death
Al-Nasafi died in 710 AH (1310 CE), the same year he entered Baghdad. An alternative report dates his death to Friday night in the month of Rabi' al-Awwal 701 AH (1301 CE), while Qasim ibn Qutlubugha placed it after 710 AH. He died and was buried in the town of Idhaj, situated between Khuzestan and Isfahan.
Answer updated
List of Works
Kanz al-Daqaiq (The Treasure of Subtleties) is a classical manual of Hanafi substantive law (furu' al-fiqh). Prepared as an abridgment of the more extensive legal treatise al-Wafi, it systematically presents practical rulings and frequently occurring legal situations across standard legal chapters, while omitting convoluted theoretical dilemmas and rare obscurities.
Madārik al-Tanzīl wa-Ḥaqāʾiq al-Taʾwīl, commonly known as Tafsīr al-Nasafī, is an intermediate-length commentary on the Qur'an. Designed to be neither excessively long nor deficiently concise, the work harmonizes syntax, variant readings, and rhetorical nuances while presenting Sunni theological tenets.