Tulbat al-Talaba
- Author died
- 537 AH
- Editions
- al-Matba'ah al-'Amirah
Tulbat al-Talaba (The Quest of the Students) is a specialized lexicon of legal terminology and rare linguistic vocabulary found in the authoritative works of the Hanafi school, authored by the Transoxanian jurist and scholar Abu Hafs al-Nasafi (d. 537 AH / 1142 CE) .
Purpose and Attribution
Al-Nasafi composed the work in response to a request from a group of scholars who asked him to clarify difficult expressions and Arabic terminology in Hanafi legal manuals that created obstacles for novice students with limited exposure to Arabic philology and literature .
While the book is predominantly attributed to Abu Hafs al-Nasafi, Abd al-Qadir al-Qurashi noted in al-Jawahir al-mudiyya that it has also been attributed to Rukn al-A'imma Abd al-Karim ibn Muhammad al-Madini al-Sabbaghi, a student of Abu al-Yusr al-Bazdawi . Additionally, Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi assigned it to Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Nasafi .
Structure and Method
Rather than following an alphabetical arrangement, Tulbat al-Talaba is structured topically according to standard chapters of jurisprudence (abwab al-fiqh) .
In presenting the material, al-Nasafi focuses primarily on:
- Etymologies, morphological derivations (tasrif), precise vocalization (dabt), and linguistic definitions of legal terms, corroborated by textual evidence (shawahid) .
- The technical legal definitions (al-ta'rifat al-shar'iyya) of terms as established within the Hanafi school .
The work concentrates strictly on the linguistic and terminological explanation of vocabulary compiled from authoritative Hanafi compilations, largely eschewing comparative juristic disputes (al-ikhtilaf al-fiqhi), disparate doctrinal transmissions, and tangential legal subtleties (al-nukat al-fiqhiyya) .
Editions
Tulbat al-Talaba was printed in Istanbul at Dar al-Tiba'a al-'Amira in 1311 AH . Later editions and printings include one published in Cairo edited by Nasr al-Din al-Tunisi , as well as editions edited by Muhammad Hasan Mustafa Shalabi and Khalil Isa .
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