A Translation of Imām Bazdawī's Preface to Uṣūl al-Bazdawī

Kanz al-Wuṣūl ilā Maʿrifat al-Uṣūl, known universally as Uṣūl al-Bazdawī, is the work to which all subsequent Ḥanafī legal scholarship is indebted. Most early Islamic works contain little or no preface; Bazdawī's seems to fully grasp the magnitude of what it is about to achieve.

The preface distinguishes the two essential sciences that shape any good scholar — ʿAqīdah and Fiqh — and establishes the prestigious position of Abū Ḥanīfah and his students in both. This translation presents the muqaddimah in full, with the narrations sourced by Qāsim b. Quṭlūbughā and annotated throughout.