al-Fawaid al-Bahiya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiya - wa maahu al-Taliqat al-Sunniya
- Author died
- 1304 AH
- Editions
- Maṭbaʻat al-Saʻādah bi-jiwār Muḥāfaẓat Miṣr, li-ṣāḥibihā Muḥammad Ismāʻīl
al-Fawaid al-Bahiya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiya (The Radiant Benefits on the Biographies of the Hanafis), accompanied by its marginal commentary al-Taliqat al-Saniyya (The Sublime Annotations), is a biographical dictionary of Hanafi jurists compiled by the Indian scholar Abu al-Hasanat Muhammad Abd al-Hayy al-Lakhnawi (1264–1304 AH / 1848–1887 CE) .
Composition and Scope
Al-Lakhnawi completed the primary text, al-Fawaid al-Bahiya, in 1292 AH, and finished composing his accompanying marginal gloss, al-Taliqat al-Saniyya, in 1293 AH . The book gathers biographical entries for more than six hundred scholars and jurists associated with the Hanafi school of law . Al-Lakhnawi also included an autobiographical entry for himself within al-Taliqat al-Saniyya .
Method and Sources
The work was conceived primarily as an abridgment and critical elaboration of Mahmud ibn Sulayman al-Kafawi's biographical collection, Kata'ib A'lam al-Akhyar min Fuqaha' Madhhab al-Nu'man al-Mukhtar . In compiling al-Fawaid al-Bahiya, al-Lakhnawi retained the biographical entries of the jurists from al-Kafawi's text while excising extraneous legal digressions and omitting entries devoted solely to Sufis and ascetics, noting that independent works on pious figures were already widespread .
Al-Lakhnawi supplemented the original material with his own critical additions and annotations, introducing his editorial interpolations with the phrase «قال الجامع» ("The compiler said") . He also drew heavily on the biographical writings of Mulla Ali al-Qari, verifying citations and documenting biographical and geographical data . Notably, al-Lakhnawi did not consult Taqi al-Din al-Tamimi's biographical work al-Tabaqat al-Saniyya, nor did he include an entry for al-Tamimi among his subjects .
Publication History
The work was first lithographed alongside al-Taliqat al-Saniyya in Lucknow in 1293 AH and reissued there in 1304 AH . It was published in Kazan in 1903 CE (324 pages) and printed with movable type in Cairo at Matba'at al-Sa'ada in 1324 AH (249 pages), edited and annotated by Muhammad Badr al-Din Abu Firas al-Na'sani with the glosses arranged at the bottom of the pages .
Answer updated