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Mukhtasar al-Yamaniyat al-Maslulah ala al-Rafidah al-Makhdhulah

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Mukhtasar al-Yamaniyat al-Maslulah ala al-Rafidah al-Makhdhulah

Mukhtasar al-Yamaniyat al-Maslulah ala al-Rafidah al-Makhdhulah (The Abridgment of the Drawn Yemeni Swords Against the Forsaken Rafidah) is an Islamic theological polemic abridging the anti-Shi'i treatise of the Ottoman Hanafi scholar Zayn al-Abidin al-Kurani.

Background and Purpose

The original work, al-Yamaniyat al-Maslulah ala al-Rafidah al-Makhdhulah, was composed by Zayn al-Abidin ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Zayn al-Abidin al-Kurani al-Kurdi al-Hanafi, a theologian, legal theorist, and exegete from the Guran region in Kurdistan north of Baghdad. Al-Kurani, who maintained close ties with the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed IV and the Grand Vizier Köprülü Mehmed Pasha, commenced the composition of his treatise in 1066 AH (1655–56 CE) to refute a contemporary Shi'i work. The work was written to examine the doctrines of the Rafidah, justify their takfir (declaration of disbelief) according to the four Sunni legal schools, and demonstrate that their territory was legally considered an abode of disbelief (dar kufr).

Structure and Contents

The text opens with praises of Sultan Mehmed Khan ibn Ibrahim Khan and the Grand Vizier Ahmed Pasha, and is organized into an introduction, four discourses (maqalat), and a conclusion:

  • Introduction (al-Muqaddimah): Treats the definitions, conditions, and divisions of independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) and legal ruling (ifta'), arguing that the rulings of later scholars declaring the Rafidah to be disbelievers were issued through sound legal reasoning.
  • First Discourse (al-Maqalah al-Ula): Outlines the major sects of Islam and classifies the Shia into three main branches—extremists (ghulat), Zaydis, and Imamis—while detailing eighteen distinct extremist sub-sects, beginning with the Saba'iyyah.
  • Second Discourse (al-Maqalah al-Thaniyah): Details the Quranic verses and prophetic traditions from which scholars deduced the disbelief of the Shia.
  • Third Discourse (al-Maqalah al-Thalithah): Compiles classical juridical rulings on their disbelief, citing statements attributed to Malik ibn Anas, al-Shafi'i, and other authorities.
  • Fourth Discourse (al-Maqalah al-Rabi'ah): Discusses the condition of later Shi'i communities and records juridical consensus designating their lands as an abode of disbelief.
  • Conclusion (al-Khatimah): Provides a general summary of the arguments presented in the treatise.

Manuscripts and Publication

An autograph manuscript of al-Kurani's original treatise is preserved in the Arif Hikmat Library in Medina (no. 698). The work was edited by al-Murabit Muhammad Yaslam al-Mujtaba as a master's thesis at the Islamic University of Madinah and published by Maktabat al-Imam al-Bukhari in 1420 AH (1999–2000 CE).

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