Badai al-Sanai fi Tartib al-Sharai
- Author died
- 587 AH
- Editions
- Matba'at Sharikat al-Matbu'at al-Ilmiyyah
Bada'i' al-Sana'i' fi Tartib al-Shara'i' (The Marvels of Crafts in the Ordering of Legal Systems) is a classic Hanafi legal treatise authored by the jurist al-Kasani (d. 587 AH / 1191 CE) . It serves as an extensive commentary and systematic elaboration on Tuhfat al-Fuqaha, a foundational work authored by his teacher, Ala al-Din al-Samarqandi .
Composition and Background
Al-Kasani studied under Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Ahmad al-Samarqandi in Bukhara, reading his principal writings including Tuhfat al-Fuqaha' . Al-Kasani subsequently composed Bada'i' al-Sana'i' as an expansive commentary on the work and presented it to his teacher . Pleased with the book, al-Samarqandi married his daughter, the Hanafi jurist and scholar Fatima, to al-Kasani, accepting the composition of the treatise as her bridal dowry (mahr) . This prompted contemporary jurists to remark: "He commented on his Tuhfa and married his daughter" .
An autographed copy preserved in al-Kasani's handwriting records his personal inscription of poetry dated to mid-Shawwal 583 AH .
Methodology and Structure
In the introduction to Bada'i' al-Sana'i', al-Kasani notes that although earlier scholars wrote extensively in the field of jurisprudence, they generally did not focus on structural arrangement, with the exception of his teacher al-Samarqandi . Al-Kasani sought to follow this approach by organizing legal matters into a technical, methodical sequence (al-tartib al-sina'i) designed to make legal rulings easier to understand, memorize, and recall .
The methodology of the work is characterized by:
- Deriving and categorizing individual rulings based on foundational legal principles (qawa'id al-usul) .
- Systematically supporting legal rulings across all sections with evidence and legal reasoning (dhikr al-dala'il) .
- Comparing and assessing opinions within the Hanafi school and other legal doctrines .
Reception and Printed Editions
Bada'i' al-Sana'i' is regarded as one of the most rigorously structured and precise reference works in the Hanafi legal tradition .
Manuscripts of the text are preserved across libraries in Istanbul, Cairo, Damascus, Jerusalem, Tunis, Dublin, London, Berlin, Qatar, Kuwait, and India (Hyderabad and Rampur) . The text was first published in Cairo in seven volumes between 1327 and 1328 AH (1910 CE) by Sharikat al-Matbu'at al-'Ilmiyya and Matba'at al-Jamaliyya . Subsequent editions include prints by Dar al-Kitab al-'Arabi (1394 AH / 1974 CE; 1402 AH) and Dar Ihya' al-Turath al-'Arabi (1417 AH) in Beirut .
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