Sharh al-Manzuma al-Bayquniyya li Yusuf Jawda
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Sharh al-Manzuma al-Bayquniyya (Commentary on the Bayquniyya Poem) is a contemporary work on hadith terminology (mustalah al-hadith) written by Yusuf bin Jawda al-Dawudi, a faculty member at Taibah University and Al-Azhar University's Faculty of Usul al-Din and Da'wah in Menoufia . The book provides an analytical commentary and critical edition of al-Manzuma al-Bayquniyya, the well-known primer in didactic verse composed by Umar ibn Muhammad al-Bayquni (d. c. 1080 AH / 1669 CE) .
Purpose and Scope
Al-Dawudi formulated the work to address what he observed in earlier commentaries on al-Bayquniyya: while numerous and scholarly, many were dense, heavily digressive, and burdened with complex debates among classical traditionists presented in an archaic style unsuited for beginners . His stated aim was to re-examine the text concisely and present the foundational principles of hadith nomenclature in an accessible manner tailored to modern students .
Method and Structure
In his commentary, al-Dawudi adopts a structured pedagogical approach:
- Categorization and Mind Maps: He organizes the categories of hadith into three overarching divisions based on analytical criteria and incorporates mind maps to clarify the subject matter .
- Exposition and Clarification: He explains each hadith type featured in the poem, explicates the poet’s intended meaning, and clarifies technical terms that are frequently confused, such as al-munqati' (the broken-chained report) and al-maqtu' (the report halting at a Successor) .
- Examples and Concluding Notes: Each definition and its subcategories are illustrated with selected hadith examples, followed by concise supplementary remarks and caveats (tanbihat) at the end of each section .
Textual Critical Edition
Alongside the commentary, al-Dawudi established an edited text of the original poem based on two primary manuscripts preserved in the Egyptian National Library (Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya) in Cairo :
- Manuscript A (No. 180 Mustalah al-Hadith): A four-folio manuscript transcribed by Muhammad Hasan Abu Bakr in 1232 AH .
- Manuscript B (No. 179 Mustalah al-Hadith): A clear two-folio manuscript whose copyist and date of transcription are unidentified .
He collated these manuscripts against published commentaries, corrected transcription errors and omissions, fully vocalized the poetic verses, and provided annotations where necessary .
Publication
The work was published as an academic monograph extracted from the yearbook of the Faculty of Usul al-Din and Islamic Da'wah in Menoufia (Issue 34, 1436 AH / 2015 CE) by Dar al-Andalus in Shibin al-Kawm, Egypt .
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