Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Misriyya
- Author died
- 778 AH
- Editions
- T Rakaiz · T al-Faqi
Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Misriyya (The Abridgment of the Egyptian Legal Rulings) is a legal work by the Hanbali jurist Badr al-Din al-Baali (d. 778 AH / 1376 CE; also reported as 777 AH), condensing the collection of legal opinions issued by Ibn Taymiyyah during his stay in Egypt .
Background and Original Work
The original source material comprises fatwas delivered by Ibn Taymiyyah while residing in Egypt between 705 and 712 AH, most of which were composed while he was imprisoned . His student Ibn Abd al-Hadi compiled a substantial portion of these substantive legal rulings and arranged them topically according to the standard chapters of Islamic jurisprudence under the title al-Durar al-Madiyya (or al-Durra al-Madiyya fi Fatawa Ibn Taymiyya) . Ibn al-Qayyim noted that the original Egyptian rulings occupied six large volumes, whereas Ibn Rajab recorded them as filling seven volumes .
In his introduction, al-Ba'li titled his abridgment al-Qawa'id al-Nuraniyya fi Ikhtisar al-Durar al-Madiyya (The Radiant Principles in Abridging the Splendid Pearls), though it became widely known as Mukhtasar al-Fatawa al-Misriyya, and biographical sources also refer to it under the titles al-Tashil and al-Suhayl .
Methodology and Structure
Al-Ba'li arranged the work following the traditional jurisprudence chapters of the original compilation . His editorial approach involves:
- Stringent condensation: He distilled multi-page rulings into concise summaries of a few lines, focusing primarily on key legal maxims, nuanced insights, and uncommon legal positions .
- Synthesis of overlapping rulings: When multiple fatwas addressed the same subject, he combined them into a single entry to eliminate redundancy .
- Omission of questions: He largely discarded the original queries posed to Ibn Taymiyyah, incorporating only the essential elements of the question into the text when necessary .
- Personal annotations: He added personal commentary and qualifications in only three specific places across the text .
- Marginal structural notes: He recorded the beginnings of individual volumes of the original Fatawa Misriyya in the margins .
Significance and Editions
The abridgment preserves sections and legal opinions from the original Fatawa Misriyya whose primary manuscripts remain lost .
The work was printed in Cairo by Matba'at al-Sunna al-Muhammadiyya in 1368 AH (1949 CE), prepared by Muhammad Hamid al-Fiqi and reviewed by Abd al-Majid Salim . A later critical edition was edited by Abd al-Aziz ibn Adnan al-Iydan and Anas ibn Adil al-Yatama, collated against an autograph manuscript of the author alongside three other copies .
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