Maturidism

Maturidism (Arabic: المَاتُريدِيَّةُ, romanized: al-Māturīdiyya) is a school of theology in Sunni Islam named after Abu Mansur al-Maturidi. It is one of the three creeds of Sunni Islam alongside Ash'arism and Atharism, and prevails in the Hanafi school of jurisprudence. Al-Maturidi codified and systematized the theological Islamic beliefs already present among the Ḥanafite Muslim theologians of Balkh and Transoxiana under one school of systematic theology (kalām); Abu Hanifa emphasized the use of rationality and theological rationalism regarding the interpretation of the sacred scriptures of Islam. Maturidism was originally circumscribed to the region of Transoxiana in Central Asia but it became the predominant theological orientation amongst the Sunnī Muslims of Persia before the Safavid conversion to Shīʿīsm in the 16th century, and the Ahl al-Ra'y (people of reason). It enjoyed a preeminent status in the Ottoman Empire and Timurid Empire. Outside the old Ottoman and Timurid empires, most Turkic tribes, Hui people, Central Asian, and South Asian Muslims also follow the Maturidi theology. There have also been Arab Maturidi scholars.