The text presented in this volume is among the best-known works of early Islamic law, but now it has an important new history. The author, Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-ShaybÄnÄ« (d. 189/804â5) was the most prolific writer of the early ḤanafÄ« school, and the KitÄb al-Aá¹£l was his magnum opus.1 But the transmitter of the manuscripts presented here, Asad b. al-FurÄt (d. 213/828), was a North African scholar, and one of the manuscripts on which this edition is based was written before 278/891. Not only was it written down a mere sixty-five years after the death of its transmitter, it represents the earliest preserved example of ḤanafÄ« jurisprudence known.
It may seem strange that our earliest dated example of ḤanafÄ« jurisprudence is to be found in Kairouan, Tunisia, now known as a center for the study of MÄlikÄ« law. Yet during Asadâs lifetime, the Aghlabid Amirs were following their Abbasid overlords in many things, including their preferences for ḤanafÄ« jurisprudence and MuÊ¿tazilite theology. In fact, the Aghlabids devoted much of their wealth to supporting a court life and public works that rivaled the cities of Fuá¹£á¹Äá¹ and Baghdad. Physicians and philosophers flocked to the House of Wisdom, and the legal courts were presided over by both ḤanafÄ« and MÄlikÄ« qÄá¸Ä«s. Asad b. al-FurÄt himself was chosen to be the special qÄá¸Ä« of the army that was sent to invade Sicily, and it was there that he died.
The three manuscript fragments edited here by Dr. Nejmeddine Hentati were preserved for centuries in the maqṣūra, an enclosed space near the front of the SÄ«dÄ« Ê¿Uqba b. NÄfiÊ¿ mosque, in Kairouan, then the capital of the province of IfrÄ«qiyya. This collection of manuscripts is now kept at the National Laboratory for the Preservation and Conservation of Parchment and Manuscripts (NLPCPM) in Raqqada, Kairouan. To the best of my knowledge, the NLPCPM holds the oldest near-intact collection of Islamic manuscripts in the world, containing twenty-three of only thirty Islamic literary manuscripts worldwide that can be confidently dated to 900 CE or earlier.2 These include a fragment of the Mudawwana by SaḥnÅ«n b. SaÊ¿Ä«d (d. 240/854) that was studied with the master himself in the year AH 235 (849â850 CE). There are also two dated fragments on paper, centuries before this material was used in Europe, and many beautiful ancient QurʾÄn manuscripts. According to a 2022 report by chief conservator Saleh al-Mahdi ben Hammouda, the NLPCPM contains more than 44,000 disbound leaves from Qurâanic manuscripts, of which 40,000 are on parchment; more than 48,000 disbound leaves from non-Qurâanic manuscripts, 11,000 on parchment; about 2,200 paper manuscript codices; and 381 documents as well as hundreds of old bindings.3
It was Muḥammad al-BuhlÄ« al-NayyÄl who first noted the existence of Asadâs text in this manuscript collection,4 and Joseph Schacht described it more fully in 1967, noting its ḤanafÄ« contents.5 Nonetheless, it has been confused with the Asadiyya, and as such has been attached to a significant debate about the origins of the Mudawwana, an important book of MÄlikÄ« jurisprudence, written by Asadâs contemporary and rival, SaḥnÅ«n b. SaÊ¿Ä«d. The story, as first passed down by the ShÄfiÊ¿Ä« scholar AbÅ« IsḥÄq al-ShÄ«rÄzÄ« (d. 476/1083),6 begins in Egypt, where Asad is said to have written a 60-volume book called the Asadiyya based on questions he had developed while in Iraq and then asked of several Egyptian scholars; only Ibn al-QÄsim (d. 191/806) agreed to give answers and on this basis Asad compiled his book.
Upon Asadâs return to Kairouan in 181/797, SaḥnÅ«n b. SaÊ¿Ä«d is supposed to have made a copy taking it with him to Egypt. SaḥnÅ«n then read this to Ibn al-QÄsim, who insisted on corrections and additions, and so the Asadiyya is thereby said to be the foundation of SaḥnÅ«nâs masterwork, the Mudawwana. Asad refused to correct his own text, whereupon Ibn al-QÄsim denounced and cursed the Asadiyya, thereby helping to explain why it was forgotten while the Mudawwana flourished. Historians also tell us that Ê¿Abd al-RaḥmÄn b. AbÄ« l-Ghumr (d. 234/848) is said to have transmitted the Asadiyya in Egypt and also produced a mukhtaá¹£ar (compendium) based on it.
However this may be, Miklos Muranyi suggested many years ago that the fragments of Asadâs writing in Kairouan were not this Asadiyya but rather Asadâs transmission of al-ShaybÄnÄ«âs KitÄb al-Aá¹£l that he had copied while on his travels to the East.7 Through careful study, Dr. Hentati has definitively proven this suggestion to be fact. Not only does this text by Asad never cite Ibn al-QÄsim â far and away the most common source of information in SaḥnÅ«nâs Mudawwana â it also does not follow the order of discussion in the Mudawwana.
AbÅ« Ê¿AbdallÄh Asad b. al-FurÄt b. SinÄn is without question one of the most important figures in Kairouani history, and the three manuscript fragments of works attributed to him are finally available for wider study, thanks to the work of Dr. Nejmeddine Hentati. Asadâs name also appears in QayrawÄn as a transmitter of a KitÄb al-aqá¸iyÄʾ by the ḤanafÄ« scholar YaḥyÄ b. ZakariyyÄʾ b. AbÄ« ZÄʾida (d. 182/798). In turn, one fragment of Asadâs book was transmitted by SulaymÄn b. ImrÄn (d. 270/883â4), the ḤanafÄ« judge of BÄja. Asad may have also transmitted al-ShaybÄnÄ«âs Siyar.8 Altogether, these direct witnesses to Asadâs intellectual activity in Kairouan suggest that he was the local conduit to ḤanafÄ« jurisprudence, but because of the North African historiansâ prejudice against Ḥanafism, we know little about Asadâs students, though several famous MÄlikÄ« students were also said to have studied with him and his works were known through the fourth/tenth century in both Andalusia and North Africa.
As mentioned above, the Aghlabid Amir ZiyÄdÄt AllÄh appointed Asad as commander and QÄá¸Ä« of a raid on Sicily in 212/827. This was the first step in the Aghlabid conquest of Sicily, finally completed in 289/902. While the raid was opposed by many of QayrawÄnâs notables, great numbers turned out for Asadâs farewell. Al-QÄá¸Ä« Ê¿IyÄd b. MÅ«sÄ records Asadâs speech, in which he is said to have proclaimed: âI have only reached what you see by scholarship. So strive yourselves and persevere in the laying down of knowledge; by it, you will gain both this world and the next.â9 These words have certainly been taken to heart by Dr. Hentati, and we are all the beneficiaries of his scholarly efforts.
Jonathan E. Brockopp
See the 2012 edition by Mehmet Boynukalın. It is both published in print (Beirut: DÄr Ibn Ḥazm) and available from the Ministry of Endowments in Qatar at http://waqfeya.com/book.php?bid=9376
See Jonathan Brockopp (2017), Muhammadâs Heirs: The Rise of Muslim Scholarly Communities, 622â950, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 199â209.
Saleh al-Mahdi ben Hammouda (2022), âThe Kairouan Manuscripts: Developing a New Inventory,â unpublished paper presented to the workshop, âLegal Texts and Scholarly Communities as Reflected in the Raqqada Collection,â at Universität Hamburg on 17 June 2022.
Muḥammad al-BuhlÄ« al-NayyÄl (1963), al-Maktaba al-athariyya bi-l-QayrawÄn, Tunis, 31.
Joseph Schacht (1967), âOn Some Manuscripts in the Libraries of Kairouan and Tunis,â Arabica 14: 225â58.
As noted by Miklos Muranyi (1997), Beiträge zur Geschichte der ḤadÄ«t und Rechtsgelehrsamkeit der MÄlikiyya in Nordafrika bis zum 5. Jh. d.H., Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 42.
Muranyi, Beiträge, 22â24 and 42â43.
Jonathan Brockopp (2009), âAsad b. al-FurÄtâ, Encyclopedia of Islam, Third Edition, Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1:169â171.
âIyÄḠb. MÅ«sÄ (1982), TartÄ«b al-madÄrik, 8 vols., âAbd al-QÄdir al-á¹¢aḥrÄwÄ« et al. (eds), Rabat: WizÄrat al-AwqÄf, 3:305â6.