Qadi Khan
- Died
- 592 AH
- Born in
- -
Qadi Khan (d. 592 AH / 1196 CE) was a Transoxanian jurist of the Hanafi school, renowned for his authoritative legal responsa compiled in Fatawa Qadi Khan and his legal commentary Sharh al-Ziyadat.
Lineage and Education
He was al-Hasan ibn Mansur ibn Mahmud ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Abd al-Razzaq ibn Abi Nasr ibn Ja'far ibn Sulayman, titled Fakhr al-Din and bearing the geographical nisbas al-Uzjandi, al-Farghani, and al-Bukhari. He belonged to a prominent scholarly family from Uzjand in the region of Farghana. His grandfather, the judge Shams al-A'immah Mahmud ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Uzjandi, was an eminent jurist and mufti from whom Qadi Khan received legal training.
He studied extensively with Zahir al-Din al-Hasan ibn Ali al-Marghinani, with whom he maintained a long companionship and from whom he transmitted a substantial amount of material. His other teachers included Abu Ishaq Ibrahim ibn Isma'il al-Saffar and Nizam al-Din Ibrahim ibn Ali al-Marghinani.
Scholarly Standing and Students
Qadi Khan was regarded as the foremost mufti of the East in his era and was ranked among the jurists capable of independent legal deduction in unprecedented legal questions (mujtahidun fi al-masa'il). His legal rulings and doctrinal authentications were widely relied upon by later Hanafi authorities. His legal responsa collection, Fatawa Qadi Khan, became a standard reference work comprising four volumes. He also composed Sharh al-Ziyadat, a detailed legal commentary explaining the branch issues compiled in Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani's foundational text al-Ziyadat by establishing underlying principles and doctrinal controls. Al-Dhahabi reported examining a volume of his legal dictations (amali) recorded in the years 587, 588, and 589 AH.
Prominent scholars who studied under him and transmitted his teachings include Jamal al-Din Mahmud al-Hasiri, Shams al-A'immah Muhammad ibn Abd al-Sattar al-Kardari, Tahir ibn Ahmad al-Bukhari, and Najm al-A'immah al-Hakimi.
Death
Qadi Khan died on the night of the middle of Ramadan in 592 AH (1196 CE).
Answer updated
List of Works
Sharh al-Ziyadat is a comprehensive legal commentary on Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani's foundational work al-Ziyadat. The book explains the legal branch issues compiled in the original zahir al-riwayah text by establishing introductory legal foundations, general principles, and doctrinal controls before connecting subsidiary cases to them and expanding on their reasoning and evidentiary proofs.