al-Makharij fi al-Hiyal - min al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al-Hasan

al-Makharij fi al-Hiyal (Legal Exits in Juristic Devices) is a classical Hanafi legal treatise attributed to Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani (131–189 AH / 748–804 CE), representing the section on legal expedients (Kitab al-Hiyal) from his foundational compendium al-Asl al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…+1.

Subject Matter and Scope

The work is dedicated to the jurisprudence of legal exits (makharij) and devices (hiyal), providing practical legal arrangements through which an individual can achieve lawful objectives, resolve legal impasses, or prevent wrongdoing without violating the objectives of Islamic law Majallat al-Risala+1. It incorporates numerous legal scenarios and formulations established among early Hanafi jurists, including a substantial number of cases transmitted from Abu Yusuf Majallat al-Risala+1. The treatise addresses solutions across various branches of jurisprudence, notably preemption (shufʿah), contractual stipulations, and commercial transactions Majallat al-Risala+1.

Attribution and Scholarly Reception

Classical scholars differed regarding whether Kitab al-Hiyal was authored by al-Shaybani himself:

• Abu Sulayman al-Juzjani denied the book's attribution to al-Shaybani, claiming that it was fabricated and compiled by copyists (warraqun) in Baghdad, and that opponents of the jurists of legal reasoning (ahl al-raʾy) ascribed it to Hanafi authorities to defame them al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…+1. Another report via Muhammad ibn Samaʿah recounts al-Shaybani disowning a circulating work on makharij, with Ahmad ibn Abi ʿImran stating that Ismail ibn Hammad ibn Abi Hanifah had authored it Ilam al-Muwaqqiin an Rabb….
• Conversely, Abu Hafs al-Bukhari affirmed its authenticity and transmitted it directly from al-Shaybani al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…+1. Al-Hakim al-Shahid likewise accepted the attribution by incorporating the book into his legal digest al-Kafi al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al….
• Al-Sarakhsi defended the authenticity of its attribution to al-Shaybani in his commentary al-Mabsut, explaining that the legal expedients articulated by Hanafi authorities are lawful when used to escape what is forbidden or to attain what is lawful, whereas devices intended to nullify an established right or disguise a falsehood are reprehensible al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…+1.

Transmission and Manuscripts

The text survives in two primary recensions:

1. Within al-Asl: Transmitted through Muhammad ibn Harun al-Ansari from al-Shaybani as an integral chapter of the larger compendium al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al….
2. Standalone Recension: Transmitted as an independent book without a recorded chain of transmission in its heading al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…. Notable manuscript copies include MS Sehid Ali Pasha 962 (comprising 72 folios, copied by Yunus ibn Umar) and MS Mulla Celebi 57 (comprising 24 folios, copied in 862 AH by Abd Allah ibn al-Hajj Husayn al-Abbadi al-Makki) at the Suleymaniye Library al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…+1. Although titles in these manuscripts ascribe the material to Abu Hanifa or Abu Yusuf, comparison demonstrates that they contain essentially the same legal cases as Kitab al-Hiyal in al-Asl, differing only in wording and chapter arrangement, alongside a few additional cases al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…+1.

Publication History

The standalone recension was edited by the German Orientalist Joseph Schacht based on the Sehid Ali Pasha and Mulla Celebi manuscripts and published under the title Das Kitāb al-maḫāriǧ fil-ḥiyal des Muḥammad ibn al-Ḥasan aš-Šaibanī in Leipzig in 1930 al-Asl li Muhammad ibn al…+1.