Mukhtasar al-Khilafiyat lil-Bayhaqi
- Author died
- 699 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd
Mukhtasar al-Khilafiyat lil-Bayhaqi (Abridgment of al-Bayhaqi's Discrepant Legal Issues) is a work of comparative jurisprudence (khilaf) by the Andalusian-Damascene Shafi'i hadith scholar Ibn Farah (625–699 AH / 1227–1299 CE), abridging the major comparative legal treatise of Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi (384–458 AH / 994–1066 CE) .
Origin and Scope
The base text, Kitab al-Khilafiyat (also referred to as Kitab al-Khilaf), was composed by Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn al-Husayn al-Bayhaqi to address disputed legal questions between the Shafi'i and Hanafi schools (al-Shafi'i and Abu Hanifa and his companions), employing a dedicated hadith-based method to examine the textual evidences and their authenticity . Ibn Farah, whose full name was Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Farah ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Lakhmi al-Ishbili, was a Shafi'i traditionist and jurist born in Seville who studied under Izz al-Din ibn Abd al-Salam in Egypt before settling in Damascus . In preparing the abridgment, he aimed to summarize al-Bayhaqi's expansive multivolume treatise for easier study and reference .
Method and Content
Ibn Farah's abridgment systematically condenses al-Bayhaqi's original work primarily by omitting the full chains of transmission (asanid), while retaining the core legal issues, texts of the traditions, and critical evaluations . The structure follows standard legal chapters, beginning with purification (al-tahara) and prayer (al-salat), and proceeding through transactions, family law, criminal law, judicial procedure, and other jurisprudence topics .
Because complete manuscripts of al-Bayhaqi's original Khilafiyat are rare and several surviving copies contain missing folios or lacunae, Ibn Farah's abridgment has served as a textual witness used by later scholars and modern editors to identify gaps and restore missing sections in the original work .
Manuscripts and Editions
Manuscript copies of the abridgment are preserved in libraries such as the Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya in Cairo (including MS 94 Fiqh Shafi'i) and the Ahmed III collection in Istanbul .
The work has been edited and published in modern print editions:
- Edited by Dhiyab al-Aql and Ibrahim al-Khudayr, published by Maktabat al-Rushd in Riyadh (1417 AH / 1997 CE) .
- Edited by Ala' Ibrahim, published by Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya in Beirut (1420 AH / 1999 CE) .
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