Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha li-Ibn Jarir
- Author died
- 310 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmīyah
Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha (Disagreement of the Jurists), formally titled Ikhtilaf ‘Ulama’ al-Amsar fi Ahkam Shara‘i‘ al-Islam (Disagreement of the Scholars of the Regional Centers Regarding the Rulings of the Laws of Islam), is a major work of comparative Islamic jurisprudence by the historian and polymath Abu Ja‘far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (224–310 AH / 839–923 CE) .
Composition and Scope
Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha was the first work that al-Tabari authored . He initially compiled it as a personal aide-mémoire to recall the positions of interlocutors during scholarly disputations, but it later circulated widely and was sought out by scholars . Al-Tabari esteemed the work highly and frequently remarked that no jurist could dispense with two of his books: al-Ikhtilaf and al-Latif . In its full original form, the book spanned approximately three thousand leaves .
The work documents the legal opinions and divergences among the prominent authorities of the major Islamic regions:
- Abu Hanifa and his two companions (Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani) from Kufa .
- Al-Awza‘i from Syria .
- Malik ibn Anas from Medina, recorded through two distinct lines of transmission .
- Sufyan al-Thawri from Kufa, recorded through two transmissions .
- Al-Shafi‘i, through the transmission of al-Rabi‘ ibn Sulayman .
- Abu Thawr Ibrahim ibn Khalid al-Kalbi .
Al-Tabari initially included the views of ‘Abd al-Rahman ibn Kaysan al-Asamm, but later omitted him from the text .
Method and Legal Theory
Al-Tabari did not elaborate his own independent legal choices (ikhtiyar) extensively within al-Ikhtilaf, having articulated them in depth in his companion legal work Kitab al-Latif and seeking to avoid redundant exposition .
He initiated the book with an introductory treatise covering consensus (ijma‘), solitary reports of upright narrators (akhbar al-ahad al-‘udul), hurrying/interrupted reports (marasil), and abrogation (al-nasikh wa-l-mansukh), although he left that introductory treatise unfinished . The literal phrasing of his citations led contemporary Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Isfahani in his Kitab al-Wusul ila Ma‘rifat al-Usul to conclude that al-Tabari restricted consensus exclusively to the eight jurists cited in al-Ikhtilaf; Yaqut al-Hamawi noted this as a severe misreading of al-Tabari's methodology, noting that al-Tabari defined consensus across his writings as the mutawatir transmission of what the Prophet's Companions had unanimously established rather than the opinions of those eight individual authorities .
Reception and Hanbali Controversy
Al-Tabari deliberately omitted Ahmad ibn Hanbal from Ikhtilaf al-Fuqaha . When questioned about this omission, al-Tabari stated that he considered Ibn Hanbal to be a traditionist (muhaddith) rather than a jurist (faqih) .
This exclusion provoked fierce outrage among the Hanbalis in Baghdad, who initiated violent unrest and public protests against al-Tabari, accusing him of Rafidism (rafd) and heresy (ilhad) .
Surviving Portions and Modern Publication
Much of the encyclopedic text was lost over time, but surviving sections preserved in manuscript—such as a copy in the Khedivial Library in Cairo covering legal sections from Kitab al-Diya (blood money) to Kitab al-Kafala (suretyship)—were edited and published by the German orientalist Friedrich Kern in Cairo in 1320 AH (1902 CE) .
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