al-Marghinani
- Died
- 593 AH
- Born in
- -
Abu al-Hasan al-Marghinani (511–593 AH / 1117–1197 CE) was a Hanafi jurist and legal scholar from Transoxiana, renowned for his legal manual Bidayat al-Mubtadi and its commentary al-Hidaya .
Lineage and early life
His full name was Burhan al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abd al-Jalil ibn al-Khalil ibn Abi Bakr al-Farghani al-Marghinani al-Rushdani . He traced his descent to the first caliph, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq . His nisba derives from Marghinan, a town in the region of Farghana beyond the Jaxartes River in Transoxiana . He was born late in the afternoon on Monday, 8 Rajab 511 AH (1117 CE) .
He grew up in a scholarly household; his father and maternal grandfather, the judge Abu Hafs Umar ibn Habib, directed his early education and introduced him to jurisprudence and dialectics . He traveled to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca and visit Medina in 544 AH (1150 CE) .
Education and teachers
Al-Marghinani studied under prominent scholars of his era and compiled a biographical dictionary of his teachers (mashyakha) . Among his principal teachers were Najm al-Din Umar al-Nasafi, who headed his roster of authorities, and his son Abu al-Layth Ahmad al-Nasafi . He also learned from Husam al-Din Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (al-Sadr al-Shahid), Taj al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Aziz (al-Sadr al-Sa'id), Abu Amr Uthman al-Baykandi, and Diya' al-Din Sa'id ibn As'ad al-Tirmidhi, from whom he studied hadith collections . In Bukhara, he received oral authorizations and written licenses from scholars such as Abu al-Rida Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Tarazi and Ahmad ibn Abd al-Aziz .
Career and students
After completing his studies, al-Marghinani taught and issued legal opinions for many years, attracting numerous students across the region . According to his student Burhan al-Islam al-Zarnuji, author of Ta'lim al-Muta'allim, al-Marghinani customarily commenced new lessons on Wednesdays, citing a tradition regarding the auspicious completion of tasks begun on that day .
Among his notable students was the Hanafi jurist Muhammad ibn Abd al-Sattar al-Kardari, who widely transmitted his legal works . His students also included Majd al-Din Muhammad ibn Mahmud al-Ustrushani, al-Muhabbir ibn Nasr al-Dahistani, and his own sons: Imad al-Din, Nizam al-Din Umar, and Jalal al-Din Muhammad, who inherited leadership in legal scholarship in his region .
Legal methodology and scholarship
In jurisprudence, al-Marghinani is counted among the major legal theorists and preference-givers (ashab al-tarjih) of the Hanafi school, and some authorities regarded him as an independent interpreter within the school's framework (mujtahid fi al-madhhab) .
His legal scholarship aimed at systematizing transmitted rulings with legal reasoning. He compiled Bidayat al-Mubtadi, a primer synthesizing two authoritative Hanafi sources: al-Jami' al-Saghir by Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani and the Mukhtasar of al-Quduri . He initially explained this text in an expansive eighty-volume commentary titled Kifayat al-Muntaha, but fearing its size would deter students, he condensed it into al-Hidaya . Begun on Wednesday in Dhu al-Qi'da 570 AH, al-Hidaya was composed over thirteen years, during which al-Marghinani reportedly maintained continuous fasting without disclosing his practice .
Standing
Al-Marghinani received high praise from contemporaries and later scholars. Prominent contemporaries such as Qadi Khan and Zayn al-Din al-Attabi acknowledged his precedence and legal mastery . The grammarian Ibn Malik observed that al-Marghinani possessed thorough mastery over eight distinct sciences . The historian al-Dhahabi referred to him as the "scholar of Transoxiana" and noted that he was among the vessels of sacred knowledge . Commentators including Ibn al-Humam and Akmal al-Din al-Babarti styled him as "Shaykh Mashayikh al-Islam" .
Death
Al-Marghinani died on Tuesday night, 14 Dhu al-Hijja 593 AH (1197 CE) ; other reports place his death in 592 AH or 596 AH . He was buried in Samarkand near the cemetery known as Turbat al-Muhammadeen .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Hidaya fi Sharh Bidayat al-Mubtadi is a legal treatise and commentary in Hanafi jurisprudence. It synthesizes transmitted rulings and substantive rational argumentation across the chapters of Islamic positive law, serving as an intermediate commentary on the primer Bidayat al-Mubtadi.
Bidayat al-Mubtadi is a manual of Hanafi jurisprudence that synthesizes the legal rulings of two seminal texts of the school, al-Jami' al-Saghir and Mukhtasar al-Quduri, into a single concise compendium.