Durar al-Hukkam Sharh Ghurar al-Ahkam
- Author died
- 885 AH
- Editions
- Dar Ihya' al-Kutub al-Arabiyyah
Durar al-Hukkam Sharh Ghurar al-Ahkam (Pearls of Rulers: A Commentary on the Foreheads of Legal Rulings) is a legal treatise on Hanafi jurisprudence (furuʿ al-fiqh) by the Ottoman scholar and jurist Mulla Khusraw (d. 885 AH / 1480 CE) .
Composition and Overview
Mulla Khusraw authored the work as an extensive commentary (sharh) on his own legal primer (matn), titled Ghurar al-Ahkam . He completed its composition in 883 AH / 1478 CE . In his concluding remarks, the author noted that he wrote the book to gather, edit, and clarify essential legal issues absent from other well-known texts, tracing the positions of earlier authorities while identifying oversights and slips committed by earlier scholars . The text gained wide renown as a standard authoritative reference within the Hanafi school for resolving intricate legal rulings .
Supercommentaries and Derivative Works
The prominence of the work prompted numerous scholars to compose supercommentaries (hawashi), abridgments, and versifications:
- Complete Supercommentaries: Muhammad ibn Mustafa al-Wani, known as Vankulu (d. 1000 AH), composed Naqd al-Durar, completed in Muharram 995 AH . Mustafa ibn Pir Muhammad, known as Azmizade (d. 1040 AH), authored Tashih al-Durar wa-Tawdih al-Ghurar . Hasan al-Shurunbulali (d. 1069 AH) wrote Ghunyat Dhawi al-Ahkam fi Bughyat Durar al-Ahkam around 1035 AH . Other supercommentaries include Nata'ij al-Nazar fi Hawashi al-Durar by Nuh ibn Mustafa al-Rumi (d. 1070 AH), Kashf Rumuz Ghurar al-Ahkam wa-Tanwir Durar al-Ahkam by Ibn Nasuh (d. 1088 AH), and a gloss by Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Khadimi (d. 1176 AH) .
- Partial Glosses and Commentaries: Marginal notes on selected sections were written by prominent figures, including Ibn Kamal (d. 940 AH), Qinalizadah (d. 979 AH) and his son Hasan Chelebi (d. 1012 AH), Shaykh al-Islam Abu al-Mayamin Mustafa (d. 1015 AH), and Shaykh al-Islam Zakariyya ibn Bayram al-Anqarawi (d. 1001 AH) . Isma'il ibn Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi (d. 1062 AH) began an extensive commentary titled al-Ahkam, planned for twelve volumes, of which he drafted four up to the Book of Marriage .
- Versifications and Translations: Ibn Mulla Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Halabi (d. 1003 AH) rendered the text of Durar al-Ahkam into verse, while Ali al-Basir al-Hamawi (d. 1090 AH) versified the base text Ghurar al-Ahkam in two thousand lines . Sulayman ibn Wali al-Anqarawi translated the commentary into Ottoman Turkish during the reign of Sultan Mehmed II (Muhammad ibn Murad) while keeping the original matn intact . An abridgment, Mukhtasar al-Durar, was produced by al-Sayyid Ali Akhizadah .
Answer updated