Beginnings or Principles: Commentaries and Glosses on the Notion of Mabadi’ in Ibn al-Hajib’s Mukhtasar al-Muntaha

Abstract

This paper explores the influence of the Aristotelian theory of science and the philosophical tra-
dition of writing prolegomena upon a classical legal theory text. Through investigation of commentaries and
glosses on preliminary topics in the introduction of Mukhta~ar al-Muntahā, an Islamic legal theory textbook,
we will see how the conception and presentation of Islamic disciplines was influenced by the theory of sci-
ence. The Aristotelian theory of science propounded that each scientific discipline comprises three elements:
subject matter, principles, and problems. Meanwhile the philosophical tradition advocated for writing a prop-
er prolegomenon, which included introducing a work with several preliminary topics, elucidating its subject
matter and defining its purpose. The paper shows how these two influences, the Aristotelian theory of sci-
ence and the tradition of writing prolegomenon, intersected in the commentaries and glosses on the initial
section of a handbook of Islamic legal theory, the Mukhta~aral-Muntahā of Ibn al-Hājib (d. 646/1249), a prom-
inent linguist and Maliki jurist. This text was subject to numerous commentaries and glosses. This paper will
focus on those written around the fourteenth century, authored by notable figures such as Qādī Baydāwī
(d. 691/1291-92), Diyāʾ al-Dīn al-Tusī (d. 706/1306-7), Qutb al-Dīn al-Shīrāzī (d. 710/1311), Jamāl al-Dīn
al-Hillī (d. 726/1325), Badr al-Dīn al-Tustarī (d. 732/1332), Rukn al-Dīn al-Astarābādī (d. 715/1315), Shams
al-Dīn al-Isfahānī (d. 749/1349), ʿAdud al-Dīn al-Ījī (d. 756/1355), Saʿd al-Dīn al-Taftāzānī (d. 792/1390)
and al-Sayyid al-Sharīf al-Jurjānī (d. 816/1413). The analysis herein will focus on their discussion of two
preliminary sentences, which reveal a tension between the notions of mabādiʾ as principles and mabādiʾ
as beginnings, the former in relation to the theory of science and the latter in relation to the tradition of writing
proper introductions. The paper demonstrates that Islamic legal theory was conceptualized and presented
in accordance with the philosophical theory of science, as reflected in the commentaries on Ibn al-Hājib’s
Mukhta~ar, and that it stimulated a new conception of mabādiʾ that encompasses both its literal and termino-
logical meanings. Ultimately, the debates on this topic gave rise to an argument justifying knowing the aspect
of unity of a science and a critique of the theory of science at that time, challenging the idea that the genuine
elements of a science are three, asserting instead that they are one.

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