al-Mutasar min al-Mukhtasar min Mushkil al-Athar
- Author died
- 803 AH
- Editions
- ‘Ālam al-Kutub
al-Mu'tasar min al-Mukhtasar min Mushkil al-Athar (The Extract from the Abridgment of the Problematic Traditions) is a legal and hadith treatise by the Hanafi scholar and judge Jamal al-Din al-Malti (d. 803 AH / 1400 CE) . It serves as a secondary condensation and critical engagement with Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi's foundational work on reconciling seemingly contradictory hadiths, Mushkil al-Athar .
Background and Composition
The origin of the text traces back to al-Tahawi's extensive compilation, Mushkil al-Athar (also known as Bayan Mushkil al-Hadith), which addressed hadiths that appeared outwardly contradictory or difficult to interpret, establishing legal rulings from them . Because al-Tahawi's original lacked topical grouping—distributing related hadiths on subjects such as ritual purity across disparate chapters—the Maliki jurist Abu al-Walid Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (d. 520 AH) produced an abridgment (al-Mukhtasar) . Ibn Rushd reordered the material thematically, stripped the chains of transmission (isnads) and repetitive variants, and added his own objections and supplementary narrations .
Finding Ibn Rushd's arrangement advantageous, al-Malti condensed it further into al-Mu'tasar min al-Mukhtasar, aiming to make the core arguments and legal derivations more accessible while defending al-Tahawi's positions against Ibn Rushd's critical remarks .
Structure and Scope
The book adheres to the thematic structure established in Ibn Rushd's abridgment rather than al-Tahawi's original order :
- Prophetic Biography and Merits: Begins with chapters addressing the names, attributes, miracles, lifespan, and death of the Prophet ﷺ .
- Legal Chapters (al-Shara'i' wa-l-Ahkam): Organizes jurisprudential topics sequentially by standard legal books (such as purification, prayer, and fasting) .
- Quranic Exegesis: Concludes with hadiths concerning Quranic commentary (tafsir) and occasions of revelation (asbab al-nuzul) .
The complete work comprises 933 primary hadiths, excluding supplementary traditions cited in the course of legal argumentation for preferred rulings .
Methodology
Al-Malti employed a concise rewriting strategy, summarizing the meanings of discussions rather than retaining the source texts verbatim . He retained all supplementary hadiths that Ibn Rushd had introduced from Imam Malik's al-Muwatta' . Throughout the text, al-Malti explicitly notes the objections and rectifications made by Ibn Rushd and provides counterarguments to defend the Hanafi interpretations and al-Tahawi's reconciliations .
Reception and Editions
The work was published in Hyderabad by Da'irat al-Ma'arif in several printings (including 1307 AH, 1317 AH, and 1362 AH), and was later reprinted in two volumes in Beirut and Damascus . The Hyderabad edition was proofread and corrected by scholars including Abd al-Rahman al-Mu'allimi and Muhammad Taha al-Nadwi . Early title pages erroneously attributed the intermediate abridgment to Abu al-Walid al-Baji rather than Ibn Rushd al-Jadd . Later hadith scholars, including al-Mu'allimi, scrutinized specific paraphrases in al-Mu'tasar, noting instances where al-Malti's condensation modified the phrasing of al-Tahawi's original evaluations of narrators .
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