at-Tahāwī

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at-Tahāwī Arabic أحمد بن محمد بن سلامة بن عبد الملك أبو جعفر الطحاوي Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Salāma ibn ʿAbd al-Malik Abū Jaʿfar at-Tahāwī , DMG Aḥmad b. Muḥammad b. Salāma b. ʿAbd al-Malik Abū Ǧaʿfar aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī (* 853 in the Upper Egyptian village of Tahā; † 933 in Cairo ) was an Islamic law and hadith scholar from the Hanafi school of law with a focus on Egypt .

Life

He began his studies with his maternal uncle, the scholar al-Muzanī († 877), one of the most famous students of Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī and narrator of his Kitāb al-Umm , the basis of Shāfiʿite legal doctrine. Despite his basic education under the influence of the teachings of al-Shafid, he joined the Hanafi school of law in Egypt during his apprenticeship years. In the year 881 he went on a short study trip to Damascus , where he studied law in the circle of the then Qādīs . Ibn ʿAsākir describes this stay in his monumental scholarly biography of Damascus and embellishes it with the following episode in the tradition of an eyewitness:

“I was with Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad b. Salama aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī, when a woman appeared to him with a small piece of paper and claimed that it was about a question that was being put to him. Then he looked at it and it was written: 'May God have mercy on the one who supplicates a stranger, brings lovers and friends together.' So he folded the document and handed it back to her with the words: 'Woman, you were wrong, this is not the place where you were sent.' "

- Ibn ʿAsākir: Taʾrīḫ Dimašq , vol. 5, p. 370

Yāqūt al-Hamawī ar-Rūmī († 1229), the author of the extensive geographic dictionary, reports in the description of the Upper Egyptian settlement Ṭaḥā about aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's scientific career as follows:

“Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī reported: the first with whom I studied (literally: recorded) the sciences was al-Muzanī and I followed (thus) the teaching of ash-Shāfidī - may God be pleased with him. A few years later, Aḥmad ibn Abī ʿImrān came to us as judge of Egypt and I joined his teaching (he taught him according to the legal doctrine of the Kufens ). and gave up my previous doctrine. Then al-Muzanī appeared to me in a dream and said to me: 'But Abū Ǧaʿfar! I have made an alliance with you! '"

- Yāqūt: Muʿǧam al-buldān . Volume 4, p. 22 (Beirut 1955)

In another episode, which adh-Dhahabī († 1348) tells in his scholarly biography , tensions between aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī and his teacher al-Muzanī are reported:

“He (aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī) was a Shāfiʿite and studied with Abū Ibrāhīm al-Muzanī. One day he said to him: 'by God, may nothing (knowledge) come from you'. Abū Ǧaʿfar (aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī) was angry about this and then joined the (Hanafi) Ibn Abī ʿImrān. Then when he was writing his Muḫtaṣar (the summary of the Hanafi legal doctrine), he said: 'May God have mercy on Abū Ibrāhīm! If he were still alive, he would atone for his oath. '"

- adh-Dhahabī: Siyar aʿlām an-nubalāʾ . Volume 15, p. 29

As a lawyer, he also made a name for himself in Egypt as a writer of legal contracts. Until his death he was considered the head of the Hanafi school of law in Egypt. The Andalusian scholar of the Malikites Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr († 1071) describes aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī as a representative of the Kufic school of law : kūfīy al-maḏhab - after the stronghold of the Hanafites - and as a great connoisseur of all schools of law.

Works

  • Maʿānī al-āthār  /معاني الآثار / Maʿānī ʾl-āṯār  / 'The meanings of the hadith'; the work is summarized according to the chapters of Islamic jurisprudence and discusses the traditions that are ascribed to Mohammed in the great collections of traditions , but which - according to the author - contradict the teachings of the Hanafi school of law. The work has been printed several times in the Orient.
  • Bayān muschkil al-āthār  /بيان مشكل الآثار / Bayān muškili ʾl-āṯār  / 'Explanation of the Problems of Hadith' is also a collection of traditions with content and philological - linguistic - discussions by the author. A part of it is preserved as an autograph in the manuscript collection of Istanbul - today in the Süleimaniya Library. The work was printed in the Orient in 1987 and 1995 (Beirut) in several volumes under the title “Šarḥ muškil al-āṯār”.
  • Ichtilāf al-fuqahāʾ  /اختلاف الفقهاء / Iḫtilāfu ʾl-fuqahāʾ  / 'Controversial Doctrinal Opinions of Legal Scholars ' represents - like the works of the same name by other legal scholars of the time - the doctrinal differences between the four orthodox schools of law in the field of Islamic jurisprudence. The work was first printed in 1971 in Islamabad . The work, together with its abridged version of the Hanafi legal doctrine, al-muchtasar fil-fiqh  /المختصر في الفقه / al-muḫtaṣar fī ʾl-fiqh , has been commented on several times.
  • al-Jāmiʿ al-kabīr fī-sh-shurūt  /الجامع الكبير في الشروط / al-Ǧāmiʿ al-kabīr fī ʾš-šurūṭ  / 'The great collection of conditions / requirements' is the oldest legal book of forms. The work contains instructions for notaries how current documents are to be drawn up in order to avoid possible disputes between the contracting parties. The work is not completely preserved. The German orientalist Joseph Schacht published two parts of it .
  • al-ʿAqīda ("The Doctrine of Faith; Credo") - also known under the title Bayān as-sunna wa-l-ǧamāʿa ("The Discussion of the Sunnah and the Unity of Muslims") - comprises only 10-15 pages. In it, the author briefly discusses the nature of Islamic monotheism and God's attributes ( ṣifāt ). This little work received several comments up until the 17th century. It has been translated into English by EE Elder and William Montgomery Watt .
  • at-taswiya baina haddathanā wa-baina achbaranā  /التسوية بين حدثنا وبين أخبرنا / at-taswiya baina ḥaddaṯanā wa-baina aḫbaranā is a short treatise on the hadith terminology, on the equation ( taswiya ) of the two terms mentioned in the title: "he delivered us" and "he reported us". Both terms indicate a direct oral transmission in the hadith literature. Their application and the question of whether they are interchangeable, however, was controversial among the traditionalists . The author takes the view that these two terms are interchangeable in traditional literature - according to the teachings of the Hanafi school. In traditional methodology (uṣūl al-ḥadīṯ) these and other terms, which define the way in which knowledge is passed on in schools, are used differently. This treatise is quoted in excerpts from the aforementioned Andalusian scholar Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr.
  • For the governor of Egypt Ahmad ibn Tulun (ruled between 868 and 884) he wrote a treatise on the admissibility of marriage (Nikāḥ) with female slaves.

In the scholarly biographies of the Hanafis, up to 22 books are listed with titles that Aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī is said to have written. The Iraqi librarian and bookseller Ibn an-Nadīm († 995) still knew 16 titles.

literature

  • Fuat Sezgin : History of Arabic Script. Brill, Leiden, 1967. Vol. 1, pp. 439-443.
  • Norman Calder: Studies in early Muslim jurisprudence . Oxford 1993. Chapters 9-10.
  • The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, suffering. Vol. 10, p. 101

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ at-Tahāwī gives his year of birth as 239 of the Islamic calendar; d. i. 853 (from June 12, 853 to May 14, 854 ). See Ibn Abī ʾl-Wafāʾ al-Qurašī: al-Ǧawāhir al-muḍiyya fī ṭabaqāt al-ḥanafiyya. Cairo 1978. Vol. 1, 273, lines 13-14
  2. ↑ Vol. 5, pp. 367-370. Dar al-fikr. Beirut 1995
  3. ↑ Fuat Sezgin (1967), p. 439
  4. ↑ In brackets: an insertion of Yāqūt
  5. ↑ Ibn Abīʾl-Wafāʾ al-Qurašī, op.cit. 277
  6. ↑ For the older prints see F. Sezgin, (1967), pp. 440–441
  7. ↑ See F. Sezgin, (1967), p. 441. Nos. 5 and 6
  8. ↑ See F. Sezgin, (1967), p. 441. No. 4; Otto Spies and Erwin Pritsch: Classical Islamic Law . In: Bertold Spuler (ed.): Handbuch der Orientalistik . First Dept. The Near and Middle East. Supplementary volume III. Oriental law. Brill, Leiden 1964. p. 241
  9. ↑ Meeting reports of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Philological-historical class. Born 1926/27. 4th treatise. Heidelberg 1927 and born in 1929/30. 5th treatise. Heidelberg 1930
  10. ↑ See F. Sezgin, (1967), p. 442
  11. ↑ EEElder: "aṭ-Ṭaḥāwī's 'al-Bayān as-sunna wa-l-ǧamāʿa'" in Macdonald Presentation Volume Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1933. pp. 131-144 digitized
  12. ^ William Montgomery Watt: Islamic creeds: a selection. Edinburgh Univ. Press, Edinburgh, 1994. pp. 56-60.
  13. ^ See F. Sezgin, (1967), p. 442, No. 8
  14. ↑ See F. Sezgin, (1967), pp. 77-78
  15. ↑ On this see F. Sezgin, (1967), pp. 58–60, Ignaz Goldziher: Muhammedanische Studien . (Halle a. S.) 1890. Volume 1, pp. 189-190
  16. ↑ Šarḥ muškili ʾl-āṯār . Volume 1. pp. 76–78 (introduction by the editor Šuʿaib al-Arnaʾūṭ). Beirut 1987
  17. ↑ See the statement by Gustav Flügel (Orientalist) in: Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländische Gesellschaft (ZDMG), Volume 13 (1859), p. 612
  18. ↑ on him see F. Sezgin, (1967), pp. 385-388; The Encyclopaedia of Islam . New Edition. Brill, Leiden, Vol. 3, p. 895 (with further references)
personal data
SURNAME Tahāwī, at-
ALTERNATIVE NAMES أحمد بن محمد بن سلامة بن عبد الملك أبو جعفر الطحاوي (Arabic); Ṭaḥāwī, Ahmad ibn Muhammed; Ṭaḥāwī, aṭ-
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Islamic lawyer and hadith scholar
DATE OF BIRTH 853
PLACE OF BIRTH Tahā, Upper Egypt
DATE OF DEATH 933
Place of death Cairo