Study of Ibrahim Al-Halabi, with special reference to the Multaqa

Abstract

The name of Ibrahim al-Halabi is well known to scholars of Ottoman jurisprudence as the author of the Multaqa'l-Abhur probably the best known compendium of Hanafite law to be compiled during the Ottoman period, if not during the preceding centuries also. Despite the fame of al-Halabi very little has been known of his career as a scholar or of his other writings, of which no bibliographical source has until now given a full and accurate list. The present thesis aims to fill an important gap in our knowledge of Ottoman legal scholarship by undertaking a detailed study of al-Halabi and his writings, with particular emphasis on the Multaga.

The introduction contains a life of al-Halabi based on all the somewhat scanty materials available, and a study of him as a scholar. Chapters one and two attempt to draw the social'and scholarly background in which al-Halabi lived and worked, in Mamluk Syria and Egypt and the Ottoman Empire respectively and which must have influenced his attitudes and the nature of his writings.

Chapter three comprises a detailed study of the works of al-Halabi, with particular attention paid to the more important of these such as Ni'mat al-Dhari'a.

Chapter four studies the sources of the Multaqa, while chapter five is a study of the Multaqa itself. In this chapter the differences between the Multaqa and its sources are investigated-and attention is drawn to the ways in which it might be regarded as superior to its sources. The chapter is divided into subsections dealing with the circumstances of its composition, its arrangement, terminology, contents and some observations on its relationship to its sources.

Chapter six investigates the subsequent fortunes of the Multaqa as illustrated by the number of commentaries by later scholars which it attracted. The final chapter continues this study by dealing with three areas of particular importance, the contribution of the Multaqa to the Majalla, its use in the madrasas and its use by the qadis and muftis.

The thesis concludes with a bibliography and two appendices dealing with the Multaqa's contribution to the Majalla and a comparison of the Multaqa with its sources based on five representative chapters.