Arabic Manuscript Folios - al-Asṭ̣awānī (1833–1896 CE)

Hi all,

This is my first post in this section. I am delighted to share a recent addition! Here we have some very interesting folios that survive from an Arabic manuscript.

Title
The original work is called Aṣl al-Ẕurārī fī Sharḥ Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī, being an important but unfinished commentary on al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ, being the most authoritative and widely used collection of sayings of the Prophet Muhammad.

Author
The book is by the Damascene scholar ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Asṭ̣awānī (1833–1896 CE). According to the Islamic calendar, the work was begun on 1 Shawwāl 1276 AH (1860 CE) in Damascus but remained incomplete at the author’s death in 1314 AH (1896 CE). Al-Asṭ̣awānī was a leading Damascene Ḥanafī scholar, jurist, philologist, and astronomer. He taught at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, (*Islamic sunni legal theory is divided between four schools of thought, of which the Ḥanafī school is one).

Significance
Beyond its value as a commentary, it notable for its sharp polemic against the most respected commentary of al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ, Fath al-Bari by Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī in the early 15th century, Cairo.

Folios
The present fragment consists of one folio and one bifolio (six continuous pages) from the chapter Kitāb al-Īmān (the Book of Faith). Among the passages included are:

• The famous ḥadīth “None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself”, with grammatical and theological annotations.
  
  
• The chapter Bāb ẓulm dūna ẓulm (“injustice beneath injustice”), with reflections on gradations of sin.
  

Dating
The hand-burnished laid paper, without watermark, combined with its textual / script details are consistent with mid–late Ottoman Syrian production. Considering all factors, it would appear to have been written during the second half of the 19th century, most likely sometime between 1860-1880.

Features
The folios are written in a clear Ottoman naskh Arabic script, with rubricated chapter headings. The diacritics and vowel marks are applied selectively, consistent with late Ottoman scholarly practice. Trained readers could easily supply the missing signs, and their absence often reflects a functional working manuscript rather than any deficiency.

Why share these folios?
Apart from the richness of the text and its history, there is a very interesting (speculative) part to its story. According to the dating, it would appear that the text was penned during the lifetime of the author and within his geographical scholarly environment. It is not a critical edition, but what appears to be a faithful reproduction of the original with very light annotations. The big question that enters one's mind is: Was it written by one of al-Asṭ̣awānī's students as a study text? Until proven otherwise, I'm going to allow the possibility to circle my mind.

 

How interesting! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and information about this. It is an area about which I know almost nothing. One reason I love this Antiquers site is for the learning.

 

Thank you for your kindness. Adam