The Hanafi School is one of the four major schools of Sunni Islamic legal reasoning and repositories of positive law. It was built upon the teachings of Abu Hanifa (d. 767), a merchant who studied and taught in Kufa, Iraq, and who is reported to have left behind one major work, Al-Fiqh al-Akbar. Two of Abu Hanifa’s disciples, Abu Yusuf (d. 798) and al-Shaybani (d. 805), compiled and organized their master’s teachings, which were favored and followed by the Abbasid dynasty. While the Hanafi madhab, along with other Sunni schools, utilizes qiyas (analogical reasoning) as a method of legal reasoning, Abu Hanifa himself relied extensively on ra’y (personal opinion). He also favored the use of istihsan, commonly known as juristic preference, which, in some circumstances, can operate to ameliorate harsh consequences that might otherwise flow from strict legal reasoning, and which is believed by some to be based on principles of equity as interpreted by the jurist. Hanafi doctrines have always been considered among the most flexible and liberal in Islamic law, including in the areas of criminal law, treatment of non-Muslims, individual freedoms, marriage and guardianship, and ownership and use of property. Officially adopted by the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century and codified in the Mejelle, Hanafi jurisprudence remains the most influential school in the world today and is used in Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. With respect to family and personal law issues, Hanafi fiqh predominates in Bangladesh, Egypt, India, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria, and, for significant minority populations, in Iran and Malaysia. The Constitution of Afghanistan privileges Hanafi jurisprudence as a residual source of law in the absence of explicit legislation or other constitutional provisions.