The Formation and Development of Maturidi Thought in the Samanid and Karakhanid Periods

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Abstract

This article examines the transformation of Hanafi kalām in Transoxiana during the Samanid and Karakhanid periods, focusing on the formation and institutionalization of the al-Māturīdiyya doctrine within a historical-sociological framework. It compares two regional scholarly milieus that emerged around Samarkand and Bukhara by analyzing transmission chains, biographical data, and the scholarly and social functions of ribāṭs. The study shows that, in the Samanid era, the discourse of “ahl al-sunna wa-l-jamā‘a,” strengthened through opposition to Qarmati/Ismāʿīlī groups, gradually turned into a mechanism of pressure against other intellectual currents, resulting in a narrowing of Samarkand’s theological sphere and the rise of an evaluative regime based on “loyalty.” By contrast, in the Karakhanid period, the contributions of scholars of Nasaf origin–especially Abū al-Yusr al-Pazdawī and Abū al-Mu‘īn al-Nasafī–systematized Abū Manṣūr al-Māturīdī’s ideas, and al-Māturīdiyya became a Hanafi theological tradition with strong representative authority. This article aims to discuss the transformation of Hanafi kalām from a historical-sociological perspective by comparing two regional scholarly trajectories that developed in the Samarkand and Bukhara basins. The study’s core approach is to read biographical sources and isnād data through the lens of ribāṭ functions and the relations among urban social groups (ghāzīs, zuhhād, merchants, bureaucracy). In doing so, it demonstrates how al-Māturīdiyya becomes visible along the axis of “crisis-reconstruction-institutionalization,” and through which actors, texts, and political conditions it turns into a Hanafi theological tradition with strong representative authority.