Qaffol ash-shoshiy faqih va

Education of “Lock-master”
The full name of Kaffal ash-Shashi is Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ali 
ibn Ismail Kaffal ash-Shashi, and in Arabic sources he is known with the 
word “al-Kabir”, which means great, superior or revered, in order to honor 
him. In this way, our ancestors showed great respect for Kaffal ash-Shashi. 
Ash-Shashi is also one of the few scholars who has reached the level of 
imam. That is why the scholar was honored by his contemporaries as 
“Hazrati Imam”.
Kaffal ash-Shashi was born in a family of craftsman. For this reason, 
the scientist became known as the “kaffal” - “lock- master”. Kaffal ash- 
Shashi was originally a master of locksmithing, making small and delicate 
locks, with a flowery hand.
“Legend has it that he surprised people by making a tiny lock and a 
weighted key. According to some legends, he even handcuffed a fly’s leg 
(like “the Ivan Terrible”, who made a mosquito lock in Russia, he was very 
famous in the East)”12.
The great jurist (fakih) was born in 903 AD (291 on Hegira) in 
Tashkent.
Ash-Shashi received his primary education in his home country, 
Tashkent, and later in the centers of enlightenment of Central Asia. In 
search o f knowledge, he travels to large cities such as Samarkand, Bukhara, 
Termez. Here he will get acquainted and enjoys with the works of 
scientists, the great thinkers, who passed a little earlier and left a rich
12 H.Sodiqov. Amir Temur saltanatida xavfsizlik xizmati. - T.: “ART FLEX”, 2016. 262-bet.

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scientific legacy. In particular, he tries to master the works of Imam 
Muhammad ibn Ismail al-Bukhari (810-870) and Imam Abu Isa 
Muhammad at-Termizi (824-892). Because these muhaddith scholars were 
the first jurists (fakihs) in Central Asia to study Islamic jurisprudence. By 
the 10th century, the science of jurisprudence (fikh) was fully formed as an 
independent science. Our great hadith scholars and jurists have made a 
great contribution to the development of Islamic jurisprudence as an 
independent science. Imam Shashi lived and studied in Samarkand for 
some time. Then he went on to study jurisprudence. According to sources, 
the scientist has visited almost all major cities in the East and studied there. 
For example, in Damascus and Baghdad, there is ample evidence of 
multiple visits. The great fakih (lawyer) also learns fikh from the best 
teachers in these cities. The reason why the name of the scholar is well- 
known in Khorasan, Iraq, Hijaz, and Damascus (Sham) is that, in our 
opinion, Imam Shashi was also in these lands and, no doubt, his works were 
popular among the people of these lands.
With the acquisition o f the science of fikh (jurisprudence), Kaffal ash- 
Shashi became a scholar with a very wide range of ideas. He was well 
versed in philosophy, logic and literature, and had the power to debate with 
the most learned scholars in these fields.