al-Taysir fi Ahkam al-Tasir
- Author died
- 1094 AH
- Editions
- al-Sharika al-Wataniyya lil-Nashr wal-Tawzi'
al-Taysir fi Ahkam al-Tasir (Facilitating the Rulings of Price Control) is a treatise on market inspection (hisba) and the legal regulations of price setting by the Moroccan Maliki jurist and judge Ahmad ibn Sa'id al-Mujildi (d. 1094 AH / 1683 CE) .
Composition and Sources
Al-Mujildi composed the work in response to the persistent request of an official tasked with the market inspectorate (hisba), who sought a concise legal manual compiling dispersed scholarly transmissions on market regulation . The author intended the treatise to guide market supervisors in executing their duties with legal knowledge, preventing public harm, and curbing market corruption .
In assembling the work, al-Mujildi relied extensively on key North African Maliki authorities, explicitly noting his commitment to transmitting from the abridgment of Ibn Harun, the works of Ibn 'Arafa, and Ahmad al-Wansharisi's legal compendium al-Mi'yar .
Structure and Contents
The book is organized into an introduction, ten substantive chapters, and a conclusion :
- Introduction (Muqaddima): Defines price fixing (tas'ir) linguistically and technically, citing definitions from dictionaries such as al-Qamus and jurists such as Ibn 'Arafa .
- Chapter 1: The merit of the office of hisba—which al-Mujildi describes as combining religious-legal jurisdiction with administrative authority—and the requisite legal qualifications of the market inspector (muhtasib) .
- Chapter 2: The legal ruling on price control in Islamic jurisprudence .
- Chapter 3: Goods and commodities that are subject to price regulation and those that are exempt .
- Chapter 4: The categories of merchants and traders upon whom prices may or may not be imposed .
- Chapter 5: Legal and customary standards of measurement (al-mi'yar al-shar'i wa-l-'adi), and items sold by weight, volume, or both .
- Chapter 6: Aligning individual merchants' anomalous prices with the prevailing rates of the market community .
- Chapter 7: Items prohibited or discouraged from sale in the marketplace, and restrictions on individuals with physical infirmities or sores selling liquids and other foodstuffs .
- Chapter 8: The obligation to remove public nuisances and obstructions from alleys, streets, and public squares .
- Chapter 9: Rulings governing market interactions with non-Muslim subjects (ahl al-dhimma) and the prohibition of imitating them .
- Chapter 10: Forms of commercial fraud (ghashsh) and the disciplinary penalties imposed on those convicted or accused of it .
- Conclusion (Khatima): Supplementary legal questions connected to the primary subject matter of the text .
Editions
The text was edited by Musa Laqbala and published in Algiers by the Société Nationale d'Édition et de Diffusion (al-Sharika al-Wataniyya li-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi') .
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