al-Tarif wal-Ikhbar bi-Takhrij Ahadith al-Ikhtiyar
- Author died
- 879 AH
- Editions
- Al-Farouq al-Hadithah li al-Tiba'ah wa al-Nashr
al-Taʿrīf wal-Ikhbār bi-Takhrīj Aḥādīth al-Ikhtiyār ("Identification and Report in Sourcing the Traditions of al-Ikhtiyar") is a specialized hadith work by the Hanafi jurist and hadith master Ibn Qutlubugha (d. 879 AH / 1474 CE) dedicated to tracing, sourcing, and evaluating the prophetic narrations cited in legal reasoning across the Hanafi school.
Background and Subject
The work serves as a comprehensive reference of hadith extraction (takhrīj) for the legal manual al-Ikhtiyār li-Taʿlīl al-Mukhtār, authored by the Hanafi jurist ʿAbd Allāh ibn Maḥmūd ibn Mawdūd al-Mawṣilī (d. 683 AH / 1284 CE). Ibn Qutlubugha composed the book to identify the sources, chains of transmission, and legal proofs upon which Hanafi jurists rely in their rulings, stating in his preface that he set out to document the hadiths of al-Ikhtiyār to clarify their foundations.
The attribution of the work to Ibn Qutlubugha is firmly established and affirmed across biographical and bibliographical literature, including mentions by al-Sakhawi, Katib Celebi in Kashf al-Zunun, Ibn al-Imad in Shadharat al-Dhahab, Muhammad Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani, and Muhammad Abu al-Tayyib al-Sindi.
Method and Sources
In compiling the work, Ibn Qutlubugha followed the structural sequence of al-Ikhtiyār, locating each tradition quoted or referenced by al-Mawṣilī and referencing it back to primary hadith collections. In his sourcing and analysis, he drew extensively upon the works of his teacher Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, particularly al-Dirayah fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Hidayah.
Scholars studying the work have noted that while it is exceptionally comprehensive, Ibn Qutlubugha occasionally leaves a few traditions in al-Ikhtiyār without extended commentary, occasionally includes a narration that is extraneous to the specific legal chapter under discussion, or cites primary collections via secondary works without finding them in the original sources at the exact cited location.
Reception
The work was received as an essential hadith reference within the Hanafi legal tradition. The Hanafi scholar Abd al-Awwal ibn Muhammad al-Murshidi praised the compilation in an endorsement recorded on the title page of the manuscript, commending Ibn Qutlubugha's mastery of the field and his ability to extract hidden proofs that had eluded others, composing verses stating that when a Hanafi scholar falls into doubt regarding a textual evidence, consulting this work guides him to certainty and allows him to debate with confidence.
Manuscripts and Publication
The primary witness of the book is the author's original holograph preserved in the Feyzullah Efendi Library in Istanbul, Turkey. A second manuscript copy is preserved at the Center for Scientific Research at Umm al-Qura University in Mecca. Modern critical editions have been published based on a collation of these two manuscript witnesses, with indices compiled for Quranic verses, prophetic hadiths, and historical narrations.
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