A Canonical Lost Text in the Literature of the şanafi Fiqh: Mukhtasar al-Karkhi

Abstract

Mukhtasars have been preferred in the teaching of Islamic law because they were simply short and concise form of legal problems (masa'il). These books became the primary sources in conveying the madhhab masa'il to the following gener- ations after a certain point in history. From among them, al-Mukhtasar by al- Karkhi, the then head of the Hanafi fuqaha' in Baghdad and one of the earliest authors of mukhtasar, was very important. This work served as the main source of Quduri's al-Mukhtasar which was an exemplary text for the mukhtasars of the Hanafi madhhab during the classical period. While Karkhi's thoughts in legal theory had an impact on the usul al-fiqh of the madhhab, his al-Mukhtasar also influenced the articulation of the furu' fiqh through Quduri's al-Mukhtasar. It thus became a guiding text for following mukhtasars of the madhhab in the clas- sical period.