The Baha'i Studies Listserv On Wed, Jun 23, 2010 at 10:12 AM, Stephen Gray <skg_z...@yahoo.com> wrote: > The Baha'i Studies Listserv
> Hi, > > Saudi Arabia is Hanbali, actually the only palce in the world where that > specific jurisprudence exists. > http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Madhhab_Map2.png > That's a map from wikipedia. That's a nice map but I am worried that you may be oversimplifying a bit how this works. For Sunnis there are 4 major "schools" of interpretation of Islamic law. And especially in the past, particular Islamic rulers would have governed according to one of the 4 schools. And so the map which you shared gives some indication of the geographic distribution of those schools. But in practice, following a particular school is to a large degree an individual choice. So in any given country you'll still find pockets of people following madhabs other than the majority madhab (even in Saudi Arabia) Also the Hanafi madhab is also predominant in Eastern Europe, China, the former Ottoman lands and the Indian subcontinent so the number of people there is larger than perhaps the area suggests. And also another piece which makes the picture more complex is that there is a relatively modern movement sometimes called Salafism or Wahabism which theoretically strive to be independent from traditional Muslim scholarship. It would be more accurate to say that Wahabism is dominant in Saudi Arabia, not just the Hanbali school. And there are many Muslims outside of Saudi Arabia who would regard Wahabism as a form of heresy which only has as much prominence as it does because of a coincidental alliance between Abdul-Wahab and the House of Saud combined with the discovery of oil in Saudi Arabia. > > Sunni jurisprudences: > According to the map Maliki jurisprudence covers the most territory. > Shafi jurisprudence covers Indonesia which is the most populous Muslim > county and some other areas. > Hanafi jursiprudence does cover most of the Middle East. > Hanbali jurisprudence covers Saudi Arabia, just Saudi Arabia. > > Shia jurisprudences: > Jafari jurisprudence covers Iran, Iraq, and Azerbaijan. > Zaidi juriprudence covers Yemen. > > Other juriprudences: > Ibadi jurisprudence covers Oman. > > So, if you want to go to Saudi Arabia, knowledge of Hanbali jursiprudence is > an absolute prerequisite. > > Stephen > > __________________________________________________ > You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:gilberto.simp...@gmail.com > Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-510732-684...@list.jccc.edu > Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to > ly...@list.jccc.edu > Or subscribe: > http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st > Baha'i Studies is available through the following: > Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu > Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st > News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st > Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net > New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu __________________________________________________ You are subscribed to Baha'i Studies as: mailto:arch...@mail-archive.com Unsubscribe: send a blank email to mailto:leave-510816-274...@list.jccc.edu Subscribe: send subscribe bahai-st in the message body to ly...@list.jccc.edu Or subscribe: http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/all_forums/subscribe?name=bahai-st Baha'i Studies is available through the following: Mail - mailto:bahai-st@list.jccc.edu Web - http://list.jccc.edu:8080/read/?forum=bahai-st News (on-campus only) - news://list.jccc.edu/bahai-st Old Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai...@list.jccc.net New Public - http://www.mail-archive.com/bahai-st@list.jccc.edu
