Manar al-Islam bi-Tartib Kitab al-Wahm wal-Iham
- Author died
- 762 AH
- Editions
- University of Sharjah
Manar al-Islam bi-Tartib Kitab al-Wahm wal-Iham (The Minaret of Islam in the Rearrangement of the Book of Delusion and Illusion) is a fourteenth-century hadith work by the Mamluk-era scholar Ala al-Din Mughaltay (d. 762 AH / 1361 CE), in which he reorganized Ibn al-Qattan al-Fasi's (d. 628 AH) critical treatise on legal hadiths into a topical legal arrangement.
Background and Purpose
The source text rearranged by Mughaltay is Ibn al-Qattan's Bayan al-Wahm wal-Iham al-Waqi'ayn fi Kitab al-Ahkam, which was written as a critical evaluation of the hadiths collected in al-Ahkam al-Wusta by Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili. Although Ibn al-Qattan's treatise contained extensive insights into hidden hadith defects ('ilal) and narrator criticism, it was arranged according to categories of error and defect rather than by legal subject or musnad chains. As a result, related reports were scattered across divergent defect headings—placing traditions on ritual purity alongside those on slave emancipation—making it difficult for scholars and students of jurisprudence to locate specific traditions without reading through the bulk of the book.
In his preface, Mughaltay noted that Ibn al-Qattan's work had become neglected despite its great utility because of this structural difficulty. He composed Manar al-Islam to restructure the text into the standard topical order of legal collections (kutub al-ahkam), allowing readers to find all critical discussions concerning a single tradition gathered in one coherent location.
Structure and Methodology
Mughaltay arranged the contents of Bayan al-Wahm wal-Iham according to standard fiqh chapters, following the thematic sequence found in legal books like al-Ishbili's al-Ahkam. His editorial method focused on condensing and consolidating material without modifying the original content:
- He brought together scattered criticisms of a single narration into one entry, removing narrative fragmentation.
- He eliminated unnecessary repetitions, including duplicate mentions of hadiths, re-explanations of previously established defects, and repeated biographical notes on narrators.
- He omitted internal cross-referencing phrases used by Ibn al-Qattan (such as "we have drawn attention to this hadith in such-and-such chapter").
- He preserved Ibn al-Qattan's original texts, variants, and attributions to earlier sources intact, without introducing external source material.
Reception and Citations
Manar al-Islam is considered one of Mughaltay's early works. The author cited it in his own biographical and onomastic treatises:
- In al-Iysal fi Mukhtalif al-Nisbah, Mughaltay noted that his student Abu Muhammad ibn Rashiq read portions of Manar al-Islam under his instruction.
- In Ikmal Tahdhib al-Kamal, he cross-referenced Manar al-Islam in his entries on the transmitters 'Asim ibn Laqit and 'Adi ibn Damrah.
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani mentioned the work in al-Durar al-Kaminah, referring to it under the variant title Manarat al-Islam (likely a scribal corruption). Later commentators have noted that while Mughaltay demonstrated precision in restructuring the text, he deliberately refrained from critiquing or correcting Ibn al-Qattan's own contentious evaluations—such as his declaring certain trustworthy narrators unknown—because Mughaltay had committed himself to not inserting outside commentary.
Manuscript and Transmission
The book survived in a single unique manuscript preserved in Istanbul at the Süleymaniye Library (Reisülküttab Mustafa Efendi collection, MS 286), consisting of 311 folios. The text remained in manuscript form for over 680 years before being edited and published as an academic study.
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