ḤanafÄ« Fiqh in IfrÄ«qiya in the 3rd/9th Century. Scholarly Transmissions of Asad b. al-FurÄt from Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-ShaybÄnÄ«. Three Manuscripts from the Ancient Library of Raqqada-Kairouan: The Books of Prayer, Manumission and Theft and Brigandage
The Asadiyya is considered to be the foundation of SaḥnÅ«n's Mudawwana, one of the most important works of the MalikÄ« school of jurisprudence. The catalog of the Raqqada Library in Kairouan attributes three manuscript fragments to the Asadiyya. This work examines these fragments from a methodological point of view, since the validity of that attribution is questionable. From the edition by Nejmeddine Hentati, it becomes clear that they do not belong to the Asadiyya. These are rather witnesses of the scholarly transmissions of Asad b. al-FurÄt from Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan al-ShaybÄnÄ«, and they contain ḤanafÄ« jurisprudence.
These fragments are unique, and their importance stretches beyond the Asadiyya. For the edition, Hentati relied on al-ḤÄkim al-ShahÄ«d's compendium in al-KÄfÄ« fÄ« l-fiqh, as well as on al-SarakhsÄ« al-MabsÅ«á¹, which is a commentary on this compendium. Hentati also compared these fragments to SaḥnÅ«n's Mudawwana.
Nejmeddine Hentati, doctorate (1992), habilitation (2001), Faculty of Social and Human Sciences of Tunis, is Professor of Medieval History at the Zaytouna University. He has published works on the history of legal schools in the medieval Muslim West, including an Arabic translation of SaÊ¿d GhrÄb's book on Ibn Ê¿Arafa and MÄlikism in Ifriqiyya in the 14th century (2022).
All those interested in early Islamic civilization and Islamic jurisprudence, specialized researchers, students or Ḥanafī jurists, especially that the Ḥanafī school occupies today the first place in terms of spread in the Islamic world. All interested in early Islamic Law and Islamic civilization, especially the Ḥanafī school. The work is relevant for researchers, students, and Ḥanafī jurists.