by Admin on Mon Mar 17, 2008 8:11 am
They are the followers of the Hanafi * madhab (religion). The founder and eponym was Abu Hanifah (c. 696-767). Hanafi madhab was popular in the Abbasid Era and became the state religion of the Ottoman Empire. The rulers of the *Delhi sultanate, and most of the rulers of the states which sprang up after its disintegration, as well as the kings of the Great *Mughal dynasty, were Hanafi. The founders of the Muslim theological school in *Deoband (1867) were Hanafi. Currently, the majority of *Sunni Muslims in Pakistan and South Asia follow Hanafi madhab.