Research Article

A Comparative Look at the Works of Akhisârî’s “Sharhu Samti’l-Wusûl ilâ ʿİlmi’l-Usûl” and Hızır b. Muhammad al-Amâsî’s “Tehyîj-u Ghusûni’l-Usûl”

Number: 26 November 30, 2025
EN TR

A Comparative Look at the Works of Akhisârî’s “Sharhu Samti’l-Wusûl ilâ ʿİlmi’l-Usûl” and Hızır b. Muhammad al-Amâsî’s “Tehyîj-u Ghusûni’l-Usûl”

Abstract

Abû Barakât al-Nasafī’s work on Islamic legal methodology, titled Manâru’l-anwâr, has become arguably the most influential work of the Hanafi usûl al-fıqh literature in the contractor (post-classical) period. The work in question also has the distinction of being the last text written using the Hanafiyyun (Fuqahâ) method. The work, which is a kind of summary of the Usûls of Pazdavî and Sarakhshî, two Hanafi scholars of the classical period, was organized in accordance with Pazdavî's style and was composed according to the chapter- sections system. This work was taught as a textbook in madrasahs and many places in Islamic countries, and hundreds of summaries, commentaries, footnotes and translations were made on it. During the Ottoman period, which developed both the Balkans and Anatolia in terms of belief, culture, architecture, etc. during its nearly 600-year rule, the Bosnians, who continued to exist as a part of this empire for 400 years, and the scholars who grew up in that region, made efforts to combine Ottoman science and culture with their own local culture through scientific activities. In this context, in the 17th century, the scholar Hasan Kâfî Akhisârî, who lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which was an Ottoman land at the time, and grew up in that region, wrote a summary of the Manâru’l-anwâr in Arabic, called Samtu’l-Wusûl ilâ ilmi’l-usûl and then wrote a commentary on this summary, called Sharhu Samti’l-Wusûl ilâ ʿİlmi’l-Usûl. In the same period, the scholar from Amesia, Hızır b. Muhammad al-Amâsî, who lived in Anatolia, wrote a summary in Arabic called Ghusûnu’l-Usûl on Nasafî’s al-Manâr and he himself commented on this summary with Tehyîj-u Ghusûni’l-Usûl. This research aims to comparatively examine the similar and different aspects of these two commentaries on the same work from the 17th century Islamic world. In the research, firstly, the work titled “Manâr al-anwâr” which is about Nasafî and the science of usûl al-fıqh is introduced, after giving information about Akhisârî and Hızır b. Muhammad, general information is given about the commentaries of al-Manâr written by both authors. Subsequently, the commentaries of both authors were examined comparatively in terms of their sources, arrangement and subject classification, methodology, content, and approach to the topics, revealing the similarities and differences between the two works within the context of usûl al-fıqh methodology. The 17th century is often referred to as the "Period of Taqlid" in the literature in terms of the history of fıqh, but it seems that sufficient research has not been done on this period until recently. Comparative studies of this kind will help us to obtain more accurate information about the jurisprudential and methodological thought of that period. In addition, the comparative study of the two works in question, one written in Europe (Balkans) and the other in Anatolia, belonging to the same period and being commentaries on the same work, have a feature that fill the gap in the field in terms of revealing the reflections of the 17th century Hanafi usûl al-fıqh methodology and systematics in the East and West.

Keywords

References

  1. Abdizâde, Hüseyin Hüsâmeddin Yaşar. Amasya Tarihi. ed. Mesut Aydın-Güler Aydın. Amasya: Amasya Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları, 2007.
  2. Akhisârî, Hasan Kâfî. Sharhu Samti’l-Wusûl ilâ ‘İlmi’l-usûl. Critical ed. Şâmil Şahin. Damascus: Dâru Qâri Hirâ, 2008.
  3. Akhisârî, Hasan Kâfî. Sharhu Samti’l-Wusûl ilâ ‘İlmi’l-usûl. Critical ed. Orhan Ençakar. Ankara: Ankara: İslâm Araştırmaları Merkezi, Türkiye Diyanet Vakfı, 2024.
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  6. Akhisârî, Hasan Kâfî. Sharhu Samti’l-Wusûl ilâ ‘İlmi’l-usûl. Critical ed. Lüey b. Abdurraûf. Amman: Mektebe al-Qanîm, 2023.
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  8. Amâsî, Hızır b. Muhammad. Tehyîj-u Ghusûni’l-Usûl. Copy. Abdülhalim b. Ali Amâsî. Amasya İl Halk Kütüphanesi. Archive no. 05 Ba 409/1, fols. 1b–79b.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Islamic Studies (Other)

Journal Section

Research Article

Early Pub Date

November 27, 2025

Publication Date

November 30, 2025

Submission Date

September 1, 2025

Acceptance Date

October 30, 2025

Published in Issue

Year 2025 Number: 26

ISNAD
Tekin, Abdülkadir. “A Comparative Look at the Works of Akhisârî’s “Sharhu Samti’l-Wusûl Ilâ ʿİlmi’l-Usûl” and Hızır B. Muhammad Al-Amâsî’s ‘Tehyîj-U Ghusûni’l-Usûl’”. Amasya İlahiyat Dergisi. 26 (November 1, 2025): 141-179. https://doi.org/10.18498/amailad.1775367.

 

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