Uyun al-Masail li al-Qadi Abd al-Wahhab al-Maliki
- Author died
- 422 AH
- Editions
- Dar Ibn Hazm li-l-Tiba'ah wa-l-Nashr wa-l-Tawzi'
Uyun al-Masail (The Core Issues) is a work of comparative Maliki jurisprudence by the Baghdadi Maliki jurist al-Qadi Abd al-Wahhab (362–422 AH / 973–1031 CE; another report gives his birth as c. 349 AH / 960 CE) . It is an abridgment of the extensive work on high-level comparative jurisprudence (al-khilaf al-ali), Uyun al-Adillah, composed by his master Ibn al-Qassar (d. 397 or 398 AH) .
Title and Attribution
The book is recorded under several variant titles across biographical and bibliographic literature:
- Uyun al-Masail: recorded by al-Qadi Iyad in Tartib al-Madarik, al-Dhahabi in Tarikh al-Islam, al-Safadi in al-Wafi bi-al-Wafayat, Ibn Shakir al-Kutubi in Fawat al-Wafayat, Ibn Farhun in al-Dibaj al-Mudhahhab, Ismail Pasha al-Baghdadi in Idah al-Maknun and Hadiyyat al-Arifin, al-Zirikli in al-A'lam, Umar Kahhala in Mu'jam al-Mu'allifin, Ibn Arafah, and al-Hattab in Mawahib al-Jalil .
- Uyun al-Majalis or Mukhtasar Uyun al-Majalis: found in the colophon of the Escorial manuscript and cited by al-Hattab, al-Zirikli, and Brockelmann .
- Ru'us al-Masail: written on the cover page of the Escorial copy .
- Ikhtisar Uyun al-Adillah: noted in the manuscript preserved at the al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fes .
Purpose and Scope
Ibn al-Qassar's parent work was an exhaustive multi-volume compendium—reportedly reaching around thirty volumes—examining disputed questions among the scholars of the major Islamic regions and detailing the evidence supporting the Maliki position . Al-Qadi Abd al-Wahhab undertook the abridgment to provide a manageable reference that extracted the head rulings (ru'us al-masa'il) of the school for quick consultation and memorization, advising that anyone seeking the full proofs and arguments should consult the unabridged original . In doing so, he omitted Ibn al-Qassar's opening treatise on legal theory (al-Muqaddimah al-Usuliyyah) and restricted the text to substantive legal branches (furu') .
Method and Structure
Al-Qadi Abd al-Wahhab preserved the core structure of Ibn al-Qassar's work across the standard chapters of Islamic jurisprudence, beginning with the chapter on purification (Kitab al-Taharah) and concluding with bequests (al-Wasaya) and inheritance (al-Fara'id) .
As stated in the author's concluding note, the work contains 1,440 legal issues (in one variant, 1,400) . He maintained Ibn al-Qassar's exact phrasing word for word in most cases, occasionally condensing passages or slightly adjusting the order without altering the meaning . Sections subsumed under broader headings were omitted from the count, while disputed headings were classified as standalone questions . He generally avoided introducing his own legal choices or opinions, explicitly citing Ibn al-Qassar ("قال القاضي" or "قال القاضي أبو الحسن") . Although the text was largely stripped of the extensive evidentiary proofs found in the original, occasional references to textual evidence, consensus (ijma'), analogy (qiyas), juristic preference (istihsan), public interest (masalih mursalah), and companion statements remain in isolated instances .
Manuscripts and Modern Editions
Surviving manuscript witnesses of the text include:
- An Andalusian manuscript in the El Escorial Library in Madrid (MS 1079), transcribed in clear Naskh script by Ahmad al-Mu'adhdhin, comprising 95 folios (189 pages) .
- A manuscript in the al-Qarawiyyin Library in Fes (MS 1166), dated Sha'ban 612 AH, titled Ikhtisar Uyun al-Adillah fi al-Fiqh, written in Andalusian script across 135 folios . Another portion in the Qarawiyyin collection is cataloged under no. 80/291 .
The text has been edited in modern scholarship:
- Edited by Mbaye Keba Kah as an academic thesis at the Islamic University of Madinah, based on both the Moroccan and Andalusian manuscripts, and published in Riyadh by Maktabat al-Rushd under the title Uyun al-Majalis .
- Edited by Ali Muhammad Ibrahim Buruwaybah from the Escorial manuscript and published by Dar Ibn Hazm in Beirut under the title Uyun al-Masail .
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