al-Mutawari ala Abwab al-Bukhari
- Author died
- 683 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Ma'alla
al-Mutawari ala Abwab al-Bukhari (The Hidden Meanings Behind the Chapter Headings of al-Bukhari) is a treatise by the Maliki scholar and judge Nasir al-Din Ibn al-Munayyir (d. 683 AH / 1284 CE) dedicated to analyzing the jurisprudential and textual subtleties of the chapter headings (tarajim) in Sahih al-Bukhari.
Subject and Content
The work addresses the intricate correlations (munasabat) between the titles assigned by al-Bukhari to his chapters and the specific prophetic narrations and traditions cited beneath them. As noted by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in Hady al-Sari, Ibn al-Munayyir gathered approximately four hundred of the most difficult and ambiguous chapter headings in the Sahih and clarified their underlying legal and hermeneutical reasoning.
The book is occasionally referenced under alternate titles, including al-Mutawari ala Tarajim Abwab al-Bukhari and Munasabat Tarajim Abwab al-Bukhari. Later bibliographers sometimes conflated its authorship between Nasir al-Din Ahmad and his younger brother, Zayn al-Din Ali ibn al-Munayyir (d. 695 AH), who authored a separate ten-volume commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari; however, biographical authorities confirm that al-Mutawari was composed by the elder brother, Nasir al-Din Ahmad.
Reception and Influence
Al-Mutawari became a foundational resource for subsequent hadith commentators studying al-Bukhari’s jurisprudence:
- Badr al-Din Ibn Jama'ah (d. 733 AH) prepared an abridgment of the work titled al-Munasabat ala Tarajim Abwab al-Bukhari, incorporating a few additions of his own.
- Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani cited most, if not all, of the book’s discussions throughout his comprehensive commentary Fath al-Bari.
- Al-Qastallani highlighted the text in the introduction to Irshad al-Sari, and it was regularly cited by other commentators, including Ibn al-Mulaqqin in al-Tawdih and Shams al-Din al-Birmawi in al-Lami al-Sabih.
Editions
The work has been published in modern scholarly editions, including:
- An edition edited by Salah al-Din Maqbul Ahmad (Kuwait: Maktabat al-Mu'alla, 1407 AH / 1987 CE).
- An edition edited by Ali Hasan Ali Abd al-Hamid (Beirut and Amman: al-Maktab al-Islami and Dar Ammar, 1411 AH / 1990 CE).
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