Imom Buxoriy xalqaro ilmiy-tadqiqot markazi bukhari.uz
The other book written by Qaffal ash-Shashi is titled as “Adab al-Qazi” (Moral Behaviour of the Judge). According to Hajji Khalifa, this subject was also touched by Abulabbas Ahmad ibn al-Qas at-Tabari (died in 335) and Abu Said Hasan ibn Ahmad al-Istakhri (died in 328) but in comparison with the m Qaffal ash-Shashi’s book became more famous. The author Hajji Khalifa informs us that Abu Bakr al-Qaffal ash-Shashi also wrote a book titled as “Vuzu’i Qaziy” (Ablution Rules of the Judge).
As the historian Abu Sa’d Abdulkarim as-Sam’ani informs, Qaffal ash-Shashi created two more books titled as “Dalail an-nubuwat” (Arguments of Being a Prophet) and “Mahasin ash-Shariah” (The Beauties of Shariah). Imam an-Navavi also writes: “I have seen the books written by Qaffal ash-Shashi from the very bottom of his heart titled as “Dalail an-nubuwat” and “Mahasin ash-Shariah”.
As Hajji Khalifa informs us the author who wrote the book “Mahasin ash-Shariah fi furu ash-Shafi’iya” (Beauties of Shariah in the Furus of Shafi’iya) was Imam Abu Bakr Muhammad Ali known as al-Qaffal ash-Shashi. This book deals with many interesting problems in law. However, the number of copies of this book is limited. One of its copies consisting of three volumes is preserved in the library of Faziliya Madrasah in Cairo. According to the preface written by Qaffal ash-Shashi, this book was written for those who were interested in the evidences of Shariah.
Abulkarim ibn Muhammad ar-Rafi’i al-Qazvini provides the following information: “Abu Bakr Qaffal ash-Shashi was a great imam and one of the scholars of the Shafi’i order. He was a leading expert in the fields of tafsir, hadith, style and law, and created lots of scientific works. In his book “Mahasin ash-Shariah” (Beauties of Shariah), he gathered in one volume the marvels of Prophet Muhammad (saas) in a literary style. This book contains more than 1000 Hadiths”.
According to the opinion expressed by Nadirkhan Makhdum ibn Alauddin, who had worked in the central library of the Headquarters of the Muslims of Uzbekistan (former Central Asian and Kazakhstan Headquarters of Muslims), “some authors consider the book “Usuli Shashi” to have been written by Qaffal ash-Shashi, but we consider that this book belongs to the religious leader who was buried in the mausoleum of Qaffal ash-Shashi and whose name was Nizamuddin Shashi. The absence of the name of the author in the book must have confused the scholars”.
The personality and the scientific potential of Abu Bakr Qaffal ash-Shashi were famous and acknowledged not only by the scholars of the East but also of the West in the Middle Ages. Especially, a German orientalist K. Brokkelman and a well-known Russian scholar V. Bartold highly appreciated the scientific potential and the place of Qaffal ash-Shashi in the Arabic literature.
In conclusion, we may say that Qaffal ash-Shashi is acknowledged throughout the world as an expert who absorbed the basic sciences of his time both of religious and secular character and made a considerable contribution to the development of a number of fields of science and religion.
