Uzbekistan: a land multifarious geniuses. SADRU-SH-SHARIA II – UBAYDULLA IBN MAS’UD (Part 2)

Sadru-sh-sharia II is considered to be the flagman of the Islamic law in Central Asia. His manual “Mukhtasaru-l-viqaya” has been in use as an important and precious manual in the process of studying the Islamic law for many centuries and even today, it has not lost its importance. This book has played the most important role in the process of studying and disseminating the legal ideas founded by Imam al-Marghinani in his famous book “Al-Hidaya” which is considered to involve the main legal basis of the Hanafian law. At the same time, this book has made a tremendous contribution to the spread and development of this field of law.

The main reason of such fame of “Al-Viqaya” is in the fact that its author could manage the main points of the legal matters and chose the most important chapters of “Al-Hidaya” in a tiny form and explained the essence of the matter under discussion in a simple, clear and understandable language. As to its thickness, “Al-Viqaya” is equal to the eleventh part of “Al-Hidaya”, i.e. 11:1. However, in spite of its smallness, if one reads it attentively, he may easily learn the main principles and important component parts of the Islamic law. Therefore, a number of leading experts in the Islamic law wrote commentaries on this book in Arabic, Turkish and Persian languages, and it was long included into the curriculum of legal educational institutions of the East. Among the commentators of this book in the Arabian language, Hajji Khalifa, the author of the book “Kashfu-z-zunun”, provided the following list:

1. Ahmad ibn Muhammad ash-Shamani;
2. Ibn al-Ayni al-Hanafi;
3. Abdulvahid ibn Muhammad;
4. Alauddin Ali ibn Muhammad;
5. Ibn Qutlubgha al-Hanafi;
6. Mahmud ibn Ilyas ar-Rumi;
7. Shamsuddin Muhammad al-Quhistani;
8. Ali Alqari;
9. Abul-Makarim ibn Abdilla ibn Muhammad;
10. Nuriddin Abdurrahman ibn Ahmad al-Jami.

This book was warmly accepted by the Turkish lawyers as well. For instance, in the 15th century, a Turkish scholar Shamsuddin Ahmad ibn Hamza wrote a wonderful commentary devoted to this book in the Turkish language. Another Turkish scholar Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Kirmani translated the text of the book in Turkish and Qazi (judge) Yusuf ibn Davlat oghli created a Turkish commentary on this version of the book.

A scholar from Samarkand Jalaluddin Mahmud ibn Bakr Samarqandi Garmiri translated this book into Persian and commen­ted on it. In this process, he used the commentary written by Mavlana Fakhruddin Ilyas.

“Mukhtasaru-l-viqaya” was translated into Uzbek with commen­taries by a lawyer from Tashkent Maqsudkhuja ibn Mansurkhuja under the title of “Majmau-l-Maqsud”. Up to the year 1917, it had been published twice in big sizes containing 1100 pages. The Cyrillic version of the first volume of the book was prepared by Mahmud Hasani in 1999 and published in the “Adolat” publishing house. In accord with the requests of the readers, the author translated it into Uzbek with commentaries. In the preface of the book, he gave full information about the book in the Arabic and Uzbek languages.

In his book “Majmau-l-Maqsud”, Maqsudkhuja used more than 50 original sources and tried to explain the most important legal matters. It seems to us that this is the only version of the legal source ever written in the field of the Hanafian law in the Uzbek language. In the process of creating the new laws in Uzbekistan, this book might be successfully used as a reliable source.

The Arabic version of “Mukhtasaru-l-viqaya” was prepared by the scholars Muhammad Amin Muhammad Yusuf, Abdulbaqi Imamjan and Abdulbasit Qambar in 1991 and published in the “Movaraunnahr” publishing house in Tashkent.

Relying on the main principles of the Hanafian law, Sadru-sh-sharia II Ubaydulla ibn Mas’ud also wrote a number of commentaries in the field of “Usulu-l-fiqh” (basic notions of the science of law) and “Furu’u-l-fiqh” (branches of the science of law). Therefore, the commentators providing information about him respect and estimate him with the honourable title as “Faqihun Hanafiyun” (a lawyer of the Hanafian law).

Because of the fact that “Mukhtasaru-l-viqaya” contains the main essence of “Al-Hidaya” by Burkhan ad-din al-Marghinani, it is often appreciated as “A small Hidaya”. With the commentaries and translations in different languages, it is appreciated as a worthy contribution to the development of the Hanafian law in Maveraun­nahr and it serves as a main factor for the commemoration of the name of the famous Hanafian lawyer Sadru-sh-sharia II Ubaydulla ibn Mas’ud.