Islamic Law [IO Bijapur 356]

Law: Ḥanafite.

This manuscript is now IO Bijapur 356 in the India Office collections.

[metadata: Otto Loth, A Catalogue of the Arabic Manuscripts in the Library of the India Office, (volume 1), no. 208 here with further notations and hyperlinks].

LAW.

208.

B 356. Size 101/2 in. by 7 in.; foll. 268. Twenty-three lines in a page.

A Commentary on a work on Ḥanafite Law, imperfect at the beginning, and without title. The author of the original work is only alluded to by the words السید الامام المصنف; however, from occasional quotations of other works, especially his المنشور,1 he appears to be Saiyid Nâṣir al-dîn Abu’l- Ḳâsim Muḥammad b. Yûsuf Samarḳandî Madanî (d. A.H. 556),2 and the work commented on here, his الفقه النافع. CF. Ḥ. Kh. vi. 291; Fleischer, Cat. Lips. 477 sq.; and Aumer, Hdss. Münch. 94.

The author of the commentary is the well-known Abu’l-barakât ‘Abdallah b. Aḥmad NASAFÎ (d. A.H. 711). This commentary is described by Ḥ. Kh. (l.c.), who also gives an abstract of the epilogue. It is probably entitled المستصفی. The chief authority of Nasafî is Badr al-dîn Kardarî (Muḥammad b. Maḥmûd), commonly called Khwâharzâdah (d. A.H. 651), the nephew of that Kardarî (Shas al-a’immah Muḥammad b. ‘Abd al-sattâr, d. A.H. 642) who is mentioned in the epilogue.3 Very likely, therefore, the “commentary by a disciple of Kardarî,” subsequently noted by Ḥ. Kh.,4 is not different from the present work. Cf. Flügel, Class. 323.

Only the first words of the passages commented are given (with قوله), but the books, chapters, and sections of the original work are marked throughout. Hence it would appear that the Leipzig MS. is incomplete. The following headings are to be inserted into the list given in Fleischer’s Catal. 478. After No. 11, الظهار; after No. 14, العتاق; المکاتب; الولاء; الایمان; الحدود; السرقة; السیر. No. 29 is here only a “chapter” (باب). After No. 32, which is here inscribed القسمة, is to be added الاجارات; after No. 34, الرجوع عن الشهادات; الدعوی; الاقرار; الوکالة; الکفالة; الحوالة; الصلح; الرهن; المضاربة; المزارعة; احیاء الموات; الاشربة; الاکراه; الحجر; الماذون; الجنایات; الدیات; المعاقل; الوصایا; and after No. 35, الخنثی.

The beginning of this MS. (20 foll.) has been wanting for at least two centuries. The first words are: مرضه بالتحرک. The final portion has been partly destroyed by white-ants. Still, the MS. is valuable enough, as it is written in a very good hand, though without diacritical points, and, as far as can be made out from the conclusion, seems to have been transcribed by the author himself. Unfortunately, the passage is much injured. After a short prayer, the author says:

قال العبد الض[عیف]...احمد النسفی...رتب. (؟) هذا ا..1 [غفر الله] له و لوالدیه و احسن الیهما و الیه.

Then follows the statement quoted by Ḥ. Kh. The last fol. is lost.

Corrections and additions in the same hand, but of different dates. Indistinct characters have been occasionally rendered clear on the margin (marked with بیان), and various readings added from another MS.

Inscribed اجزا جلد رابع هدایه, and again (fol. 140), کتاب فتاوی نسفی در علم فقه جلد دویم. Cf. Catal. 227, i. 5 and 229, xxii.

1 See on this work, Ḥ. Kh. vi. 186.

2 This is undoubtedly the correct date, as it occurs severally in Ḥ. Kh., not 656, which he gives in describing the present work. Cf. especially Ḥ. Kh. vi. 107.

3. Cf. Ḥ. Kh. l.c. See on the two Kardarî, Flügel, Class. 319 sq. and 322.

4 Here I do not follow Flügel’s translation.

1 This word has been erased.