Multaqa al-Abhur
- Author died
- 956 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Kutub al-'Ilmīyah
Multaqa al-Abhur (The Confluence of the Seas) is a legal manual of Hanafi jurisprudence composed by the scholar Ibrahim al-Halabi (d. 956 AH / 1549 CE) . It synthesizes the legal cases of the four authoritative Hanafi primers into an accessible reference work .
Composition and Sources
Al-Halabi authored the text in response to a student's request for a concise manual combining the legal rulings of four foundational primers of the Hanafi school: Mukhtasar al-Quduri by al-Quduri, al-Mukhtar by Majd al-Din al-Mawsili, Kanz al-Daqaiq by Abu al-Barakat al-Nasafi, and Wiqayat al-Riwayah by Taj al-Shari'ah al-Mahbubi . To these four texts, al-Halabi incorporated necessary additional legal issues from Ibn al-Sa'ati's Majma' al-Bahrayn and selected rulings from al-Marghinani's al-Hidayah . The author noted that he completed the final fair copy of the work between the two daytime prayers on Tuesday, 13 Rajab 923 AH (1517 CE), though another source records the completion date as 924 AH .
Methodology
In the prologue, al-Halabi outlines his systematic methodology for presenting Hanafi doctrine :
- When presenting differences among the early authorities of the madhhab, he explicitly details the disagreement, prioritizing the most preponderant opinion (al-arjah) by placing it first, and postponing non-preponderant positions unless explicitly qualified .
- Regarding divergences among later scholars or between the core source texts, rulings introduced with passive attribution phrases such as qila ("it is said") or qalu ("they said")—even when accompanied by designations like al-asahh ("the sounder")—are deemed outweighed relative to positions stated affirmatively .
- Dual references without contextual qualification denote the joint opinion of the two chief disciples of Abu Hanifah: Abu Yusuf and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Shaybani .
- The author sought to indicate the soundest and strongest positions and those selected for authoritative legal decree (al-mukhtar lil-fatwa) without omitting rulings from the four primary works .
Reception and Commentaries
The work attained widespread acceptance across the Hanafi school and served as a standard reference of Hanafi jurisprudence within the Ottoman Empire . Numerous commentaries were composed on it, among the most prominent being:
- Majma' al-Anhur fi Sharh Multaqa al-Abhur by 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman, known as Shaykhizadah or Damad Afandi (d. 1078 AH) .
- al-Durr al-Muntaqa fi Sharh al-Multaqa by al-Haskafi (d. 1088 AH) .
- An early commentary by al-Halabi's student, al-Hajj 'Ali al-Halabi (d. 967 AH), addressing critique and objections regarding commentaries on the four source texts .
- An unfinished commentary by Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn al-Bahnasi (d. 987 AH), reaching up to the chapter on sales, followed by Majra al-Anhur by his student Nur al-Din 'Ali al-Baqani (completed in 995 AH) .
- Other commentaries include works by Muhammad al-Nirawi (d. 1016 AH), Mustafa ibn Muhammad al-'Ushshaqi (d. 1101 AH), Murtada ibn Hasan al-Adirnawi (d. 1104 AH), 'Uthman al-Adirnawi Wahdati (d. 1100 AH), 'Abd al-Rahim al-Mar'ashi (d. 1062 AH), and Muhammad ibn Yusuf (d. 1170 AH) .
Editions and Translations
Multaqa al-Abhur was published in Istanbul in several editions, including printings in 1239, 1242, 1243, 1251, 1253, 1258, 1264, 1268, 1269, 1273, 1275, 1299, 1315, and 1325 AH . It was also issued in Bulaq in 1263 AH and in Lahore in 1889 CE . The text, along with Shaykhizadah's commentary Majma' al-Anhur, was translated into French by the orientalist Henri Sauvaire and published in Marseille in 1882 CE alongside the Arabic text .
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