Takhrij al-Dalalat al-Samiyya
- Author died
- 789 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Gharb al-Islami
Takhrij al-Dalalat al-Samiyya (full title: Takhrij al-Dalalat al-Samiyya ala ma Kana fi Ahd Rasul Allah salla Allahu alayhi wa-sallam min al-Hiraf wa-l-Sana'i wa-l-Amalat al-Shar'iyya, "Derivation of Auditory Proofs for the Occupations, Crafts, and Legal Offices that Existed in the Era of the Messenger of God") is a historical and administrative work by the Andalusian-origin Maghrebi scholar and chancery official Ali ibn Muhammad al-Khuzai (710–789 AH / 1310–1387 CE) .
Composition and Purpose
Al-Khuzai began collecting and organizing material for the work after retiring from his chancery duties around 776 AH, completing it in 786 AH (1384 CE) . In Rabi' al-Awwal of that year, he presented the book as a gift to the Marinid sultan Abu Faris Musa ibn al-Mutawakkil ala Allah upon his accession to the throne .
The work aims to document the structure of governance, legal and fiscal administrations, military organization, and trades during the era of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and the Rightly Guided Caliphs, demonstrating that the institutional positions and offices of the state had foundational precedents in early Islamic practice .
Structure and Method
The book is structured into ten main parts (ajza'), further divided into chapters (abwab) and sections (fusul) . Among its major divisions are:
- Part 1: The caliphate, the vizierate, and related positions .
- Part 4: Judicial offices (al-amalat al-ahkamiyya) .
- Part 5: Military offices (al-amalat al-jihadiyya), comprising forty-five chapters on wartime functions and army organization, reflecting the author's extensive administrative experience in military affairs .
- Part 6: Tax and revenue administration (al-amalat al-jibaiyya) .
- Part 8: Other administrative duties (sa'ir al-amalat) .
- Part 9: Crafts and trades (al-hiraf wa-l-sana'i), depicting the economic and occupational life of the Prophetic era .
Al-Khuzai relied heavily on the Prophetic Sirah, hadith collections, and biographical works of the Companions, drawing extensively from Ibn Abd al-Barr's al-Isti'ab . He regularly integrated lexical explanations from major dictionaries and linguistic treatises such as Diwan al-Adab and al-Qadi Iyad's Mashariq al-Anwar .
Reception and Editions
In the modern era, Rifa'a al-Tahtawi summarized the work due to his interest in state institutions . The Moroccan scholar Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani later used an incomplete manuscript from the Zaytuna Mosque library as the core framework for his expanded work Nizam al-Hukuma al-Nabawiyya (widely known as al-Taratib al-Idariyya), supplementing al-Khuzai's text with extensive additional reports and commentaries .
The text was printed in Tunis during the French protectorate, based on a copy that initially lacked the tenth part before being completed . It was subsequently edited by Ahmad Muhammad Abu Salama in Cairo (1981) , and by Ihsan Abbas, who published a critical edition based on three manuscripts through Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut (1985 / 1405 AH) .
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