The historical development of jurisprudential effort in women's rulings in the Hanafi school

This study attempts to combine jurisprudence and history as two knowledge fields and sources that are complementary and dialectically intertwined, with the aim of producing a contemporary historical vision that relies on legal texts as an authentic source alongside historical sources that reveal the conditions of society, customs, and the shifts and transformations of authority. The study started from foundational jurisprudential texts, then examined the historically accepted Hanafi legal texts, dividing them according to historical periods linked by specific features. It then selected two models for detailed research and careful consideration, which embody the characteristics of legal reasoning and historical and societal influence: the first represents Hanafi jurisprudence in Egypt in the 10th Hijri century / 16th Gregorian century, manifested in the texts of Hanafi jurist Ibn Nujaym; the second represents Hanafi jurisprudence in Damascus in the first half of the 13th Hijri century / late 18th and early 19th Gregorian century, according to the texts of Hanafi jurist Ibn Abidin. This analysis is not limited to legal texts alone but also includes fatwas, documents, records of Sharia courts, and historical sources and references related to the political, economic, and social realities. The study concluded that legal ijtihad did not develop historically in a fixed manner; rather, it expanded, contracted, stagnated, and evolved depending on the environment in which it was formed. Based on this, the foundational texts of the Hanafi school were more neutral than later ijtihads. During periods historically characterized as decline, such as the Mongol invasion period, women gained broad political rights, exemplified by a sultana ascending the throne of India and Egypt, and a woman ruling in Iraq. All of this reflected on jurisprudence, where scholars began to endorse the permissibility of women holding the position of sultan and governing Muslims, and discussed the procedures entailed by this from a legal perspective.