al-Durar al-Lawami fi Sharh Jam al-Jawami
- Author died
- 893 AH
- Editions
- al-Jāmiʿah al-Islāmiyyah
al-Durar al-Lawāmiʿ fī Sharḥ Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ (The Brilliant Pearls in Explaining the Gathering of Gatherings) is a classical commentary on Islamic legal theory (uṣūl al-fiqh) authored by the Ottoman scholar Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Kūrānī (812/813–893 AH / c. 1410–1488 CE) . It serves as an extensive line-by-line exposition of Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ, the celebrated compendium on legal theory by Tāj al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Wahhāb al-Subkī (d. 771 AH) .
Composition and Context
Al-Kūrānī began writing the work after arriving in Jerusalem via Aleppo from Ottoman lands in 859 AH . In the introduction, he explains that he held Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī's Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ in high esteem for its comprehensive compilation of principles and eloquence of style, but felt that available treatments had not fully unlocked its deeper complexities and nuances . He completed the manuscript in al-Aqsa Mosque facing Bāb al-Jannah on Thursday, 2 Rajab 861 AH, shortly before performing the Hajj pilgrimage and returning to the Ottoman realm .
Methodology and Sources
The book is arranged as an integrated, blended commentary (sharḥ mamzūj), weaving the author's explanations directly into the words of al-Subkī's base text . Its opening text begins: «الحمد لله الذي شيد بمحكمات كتابه أركان الشريعة الغراء...» (“Praise be to God who fortified with the decisive verses of His Book the pillars of the immaculate Sacred Law...”) . In outlining his methodology, al-Kūrānī stated his purpose to resolve ambiguities, scrutinize arguments to separate sound deductions from weak ones, and elaborate or condense topics according to analytical necessity .
In constructing his analysis, al-Kūrānī drew upon major earlier foundational works of legal theory across schools, including:
- al-Muʿtamad by Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Baṣrī
- al-Burhān by al-Juwaynī
- al-Lumaʿ by Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī
- al-Mustaṣfā and al-Mankhūl by Abū Ḥāmid al-Ghazālī
- al-Maḥṣūl by Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī
- al-Iḥkām and al-Mukhtaṣar by Sayf al-Dīn al-Āmidī and Ibn al-Ḥājib, alongside ʿAḍud al-Dīn al-Ījī's commentary (Sharḥ al-ʿAḍud)
- al-Talwīḥ, al-Minhāj, al-Tawḍīḥ, and Kashf al-Asrār .
Throughout the work, al-Kūrānī maintained an independent analytical stance, preferring and defending legal conclusions based on proof rather than following al-Subkī or earlier commentators uncritically .
Reception and Scholarly Critiques
Al-Durar al-Lawāmiʿ is among al-Kūrānī's most widely cited works, recorded prominently by biographers such as al-Sakhāwī, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī, and al-Shawkānī . A distinguishing feature of the work is its sustained and critical engagement with Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī's (d. 864 AH) renowned commentary, al-Badr al-Ṭāliʿ .
Biographers noted that al-Kūrānī frequently contested al-Maḥallī’s interpretations; al-Sakhāwī remarked that these disputes divided later scholars between those endorsing al-Kūrānī’s objections and those defending al-Maḥallī . Al-Sakhāwī and Ḥājjī Khalīfa connected the intensity of this critical scrutiny in part to al-Maḥallī having succeeded al-Kūrānī in the professorship of the Barqūqiyya madrasa in Cairo . Later scholars writing on Jamʿ al-Jawāmiʿ, such as Aḥmad ibn Qāsim al-ʿAbbādī in al-Āyāt al-Bayyināt, composed rejoinders aimed at addressing and rebutting the objections leveled against al-Maḥallī's commentary .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of al-Durar al-Lawāmiʿ are preserved in various libraries, including the Süleymaniye Library in Istanbul (MS 414), as well as libraries in Rabat, Tunis, and the Qarawiyyīn Library in Fez . The work was edited by Dr. Saʿīd ibn Ghālib al-Majīdī as a doctoral dissertation and published in five volumes by the Islamic University of Madinah in 1428 AH (2007 CE) .
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