Mukhtasar al-Mughalatat al-Mantiqiyya
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- Editions
- Dar al-Hadarah lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzi'
Mukhtasar al-Mughalatat al-Mantiqiyya (Abridgment of "Logical Fallacies") is a contemporary Arabic handbook on informal logic prepared by Mardi ibn Mashwah al-Anzi, abridging the larger work al-Mughalatat al-Mantiqiyya by the Egyptian philosopher and physician Adil Mustafa.
Background and Composition
The abridger, Mardi ibn Mashwah al-Anzi, an associate professor of comparative jurisprudence at Northern Border University in Saudi Arabia, compiled the text after observing widespread logical fallacies in contemporary debates, books, television broadcasts, and academic lectures. He noted that while classical Muslim scholars had written independently on dialectic (jadal) and argumentation in works on legal theory (usul al-fiqh), dedicated treatises focusing on logical fallacies specifically remained rare in contemporary Islamic literature.
Al-Anzi initially prepared the summary for his personal reference. Following recommendations from academic colleagues to publish it for contemporary Muslim readers, he contacted Adil Mustafa by email to seek his formal permission to print the abridgment under Mustafa's intellectual authorship. Mustafa promptly granted full authorization for the abridgment and its publication.
Structure and Method
In condensing the original text, al-Anzi eliminated extended explanations, philosophical digressions, and redundant examples, keeping lexical modifications to a minimum while preserving the core definitions and analytical arguments.
The book begins with an introductory discussion defining informal logic (also termed practical logic) as the analysis and evaluation of arguments found in everyday discourse and ordinary language. It outlines the importance of identifying invalid argument patterns that masquerade as valid ones, citing philosophical and pedagogical foundations including the cognitive developmental stages formulated by Jean Piaget alongside a proposed dialectical stage, and sets out guiding principles for cultivating critical reasoning. The subsequent chapters systematically present informal fallacies one by one—beginning with begging the question (al-musadara ʿala al-matlub) and circular reasoning—explaining their structure, illustrative examples, and conditions under which certain patterns do or do not constitute a genuine fallacy.
Publication
The work was issued in a single volume by Dar al-Hadarah for Publishing and Distribution in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with its second edition appearing in 1443 AH / 2022 CE.
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