310 THE REASONING OF INDIVIDUAL IRAQIANS

Tr. VIII, 12: Shaibānī gives good systematic reasoning, though that of Shāfi'ī is more thorough; he reduces the Medinese doctrine ad absurdum.

Tr. VIII, 14: Shaibānī gives good systematic reasoning against the Medinese and uses an uncontroversial doctrine in order to decide a controversial point.

Tr. VIII, 16: Shaibānī gives consistent systematic reasoning.

Tr. VIII, 19: Shaibānī, by systematic reasoning, reduces the Medinese opinion ad absurdum, but some of the examples he adduces are surprisingly weak.

Tr. VIII, 20: Shaibānī's reasoning is inconclusive because his Medinese opponents do not share his doctrine on a parallel question which he adduces as an argument.

Tr. VIII, 21: Shāfi'ī gives systematic reasoning against the Medinese, starting from doctrines held in common.

Ikh. 186 ff., 191 ff.: Shaibānī's reasoning is much less stringent and systematic than that of Shāfi'ī, although the result is the same.

On the problem of Tr. I, 44, Sarakhsī reports a masterly argument of Shaibānī which is easily superior even to Shāfi'ī's reasoning (above, p. 271).

On the problem of Tr. I, 48, Shaibānī applies purely formal reasoning in which he is followed by Shāfi'ī; but this doctrine completely disregards the stability of real property (above, p. 271 f.).

Shaibānī's technical legal thought is by far superior to that of his predecessors in general and to that of Abū Yūsuf in particular; it is the most perfect of its kind that was to be achieved before Shāfi'ī. Shaibānī was the great systematizer of the Kufian Iraqian doctrine. He was also a prolific writer, and his voluminous works, which he put under the aegis of his master Abū Ḥanīfa,¹ became the rallying-point of the Ḥanafī school which emerged from the ancient Kufian Iraqian school.