Abstract:

Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi who is known as the imam of imams in Mawara' al-Nahr region is one of the significant Islamic scholars in the twelfth century. Caliphate is one of the issues that was addressed by Al-Bazdawi who has an important place in the development of Maturidiyya as a systematic sect by making many kalam issues understandable. Caliphate issue which is known as the first serious disputes in Islamic world after the death of Prophet Muhammad provided a basis for sects such as Kharijites, Murji'ah and Shia to emerge. This study mainly aims to detect the starting point of the dispute, its parties, the opinions of the parties and the evidence on which they based their opinions regarding this issue which is significant to cause separation in the history of Islamic thought. Furthermore, another aspect making this study significant is to detect and ground caliphate issue from the perspective of Maturiddiya theologian Al-Bazdawi along with the caliphate view of Maturiddiya because Maturidi who is the founder of Maturiddiya sect did not include caliphate in his work titled “Kitab al-Tawhid” in which he specified the basic principles of the sect. Therefore, we aimed to present this issue which we deemed necessary to study based on Al-Bazdawi’s work titled “Usul al-Din” by employing a descriptive and sometimes comparative method.

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