Ikhtilaf al-Ulama lil-Tahawi - Ikhtisar al-Jassas
- Author died
- 321 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah
Ikhtilaf al-Ulama lil-Tahawi - Ikhtisar al-Jassas (Abridgment of al-Tahawi's Difference of Opinion Among Scholars by al-Jassas) is a major reference work on comparative jurisprudence (ikhtilaf), originally authored by Abu Ja'far al-Tahawi (d. 321 AH / 933 CE) and epitomized by Abu Bakr al-Jassas (d. 370 AH / 981 CE) .
Origin and Composition
The foundational work was authored by al-Tahawi under the title Kitab al-Ikhtilaf bayna al-Fuqaha' (also known as Ikhtilaf al-Ulama or Ikhtilaf al-Riwayat) as an extensive encyclopedic survey of legal disagreements across Islamic legal history . Ibn al-Nadim noted that al-Tahawi conceived it on a vast scale and did not live to bring the entire planned treatise to completion, though approximately eighty distinct books arranged systematically according to substantive legal chapters were issued in his lifetime . In its unabridged form, it spanned more than one hundred and thirty fascicles (ajza'), and early biographers such as Abu al-Husayn al-Saymari observed that no preceding scholar had produced a comparative compendium of equivalent scope .
Recognizing the size and utility of the work, the leading Hanafi jurist and legal theorist Abu Bakr al-Jassas composed an abridgment entitled Mukhtasar Ikhtilaf al-Ulama (also styled Mukhtasar Ikhtilaf Ulama al-Amsar), condensing its expositions and preserving the transmission of early juridical views .
Scope and Contents
The text gathers and categorizes divergent legal rulings across standard chapters of substantive law (furu'), documenting the doctrines of the prominent legal schools and independent early authorities whose personal treatises have not survived independently . In addition to recording the rulings of the four eponymous school founders and their direct disciples, the summary preserves the legal opinions of early authorities such as Ibrahim al-Nakha'i, Uthman al-Batti, al-Awza'i, Sufyan al-Thawri, al-Layth ibn Sa'd, Ibn Shubrumah, Ibn Abi Layla, and al-Hasan ibn Salih ibn Hayy .
Manuscripts and Publication
While complete manuscripts of al-Tahawi's unabridged original have not been identified, al-Jassas's abridgment has survived in manuscript collections, including the Jar Allah Wali al-Din collection in Istanbul and fragments held in the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya) in Cairo . The text has been edited and published under the title Mukhtasar Ikhtilaf al-Ulama by Dr. Abdullah Nadhir Ahmad, issued by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah in Beirut .
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