ABū SHAKūR AL-SāLIMī AND HIS THEOLOGICAL IDENTITY WITHIN THE SCOPE OF AL-TAMHīD Fī BAYāN AL-TAW？īD

Even though al-Imām al-Māturīdī was praised by certain scholars, such as his master Abū Na？r al-？Iyā？ī, and was described later as the founder of Māturīdiyyah by both his school’s followers and his competitors, such as Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, it is clear that his school took form based on the ideational foundations of Abū ？anīfah. In places like Khurāsān and Transoxiana where Māturīdiyyah spreaded most, the most prominent followers have been the ？anafī scholars and the school was called ？anafiyyah/Māturīdiyyah because of its “dual-authoritative” nature. While ？anafīs of Samarqand embraced a more kalāmī/dialectical methodology much like al-Imām al-Māturīdī, ？anafīs of Bukhārā had a more scripturalist/traditionalist attitude with some caution of rational interpretation (ta？wīl). No doubt that, despite his rational (grounded on ra？y) and interpretivist attitudes in the issues of fiqh, the fact that Abū ？anīfah had a more moderate and conservative attitude that is not completely contrary to that of Ahl al-？adīth in credal/theological issues had an effect on this. Even though he preserved his kalāmī methodology and style in congruence with his school and penned an entirely theological book named al-Tamhīd, Abū Shakūr al-Sālimī, a representative of Samarqand ？anafī/Māturīdī tradition, had some ideas and views compatible with the “conservative” Bukhārā-based ？anafī/Māturīdī position, probably because of perceiving Abū ？anīfah as the absolute authority. Nevertheless, it is possible to say that he followed and fused the ideas of both of two authorities, Abū ？anīfah and al-Imām al-Māturīdī, and at the same time, preserved his own authenticity