Ala al-Din al-Samarqandi
- Died
- 540 AH
- Born in
- -
Ala al-Din al-Samarqandi (d. 539 AH / 1144 CE) was a Hanafi jurist and legal theorist from Transoxiana, best known for his manual of substantive law Tuhfat al-fuqaha (Gift of the Jurists) and his legal theory treatise Mizan al-usul fi nata'ij al-'uqul (The Scale of Principles in the Fruits of Intellects) .
Name and Education
His full name was Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Ahmad al-Samarqandi, titled Ala al-Din . He bore the kunya Abu Bakr, while some biographical accounts report it as Abu Mansur, and he was occasionally referred to as Abd al-Karim . Originally associated with Samarkand, he resided in Bukhara . He studied Hanafi jurisprudence under the theologian Abu al-Mu'in al-Nasafi (Maymun ibn Muhammad al-Mak-huli) and the jurist Sadr al-Islam Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi .
Teaching and Family
Al-Samarqandi trained a number of prominent Hanafi scholars, most notably Ala al-Din al-Kasani, Diya al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Hasan, and his daughter Fatima . Fatima was herself an accomplished jurist who memorized her father's work Tuhfat al-fuqaha . When al-Kasani studied under al-Samarqandi and composed his extensive commentary Bada'i al-sana'i (The Marvels of Crafts) on the text, al-Samarqandi was so pleased that he gave Fatima to him in marriage, accepting the commentary as her dowry . Legal responsa issued from their household initially carried the signatures of al-Samarqandi and his daughter, and following her marriage, fatwas were issued bearing the signatures of all three .
Standing and Death
The historian Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani described al-Samarqandi as an authoritative master in issuing legal opinions, dialectical disputation, legal theory, and theology, and noted that al-Samarqandi had granted him an authorization (ijazah) in writing .
Al-Samarqandi died in Bukhara on 1 Jumada al-Ula 539 AH (November 1144 CE) according to al-Sam'ani . Other sources give his year of death as 540 AH or 552 AH .
Answer updated
List of Works
Tuhfat al-Fuqaha is a classical manual of Hanafi substantive law (furu' al-fiqh). Conceived to supplement Mukhtasar al-Quduri, it resolves ambiguities, supplies textual and rational proofs, and details legal classifications that earlier summaries omitted. The work systematically covers the traditional sequence of substantive jurisprudence chapters, linking sub-branches back to fundamental legal principles and categorizations while adopting an intermediate style between excessive brevity and tedious length.
Mizan al-Usul fi Nataij al-Uqul is a foundational treatise on legal theory (usul al-fiqh) within the Hanafi tradition. Grounded in the premise that legal theory is intrinsically connected to speculative theology (usul al-kalam), the work aims to establish Hanafi legal principles upon theological foundations rooted in orthodox Maturidism while systematically evaluating differing viewpoints across four primary divisions: legal rulings, sources of rulings, conflict of evidence, and legal capacity.