The Disciplines of Fiqh in al-Tahānawī’s Kashshāf: An Evaluation Focused on Content and Sources
Abstract
The Indian subcontinent has been one of the most dynamic regions of the Islamic world in terms of population and activity since the centuries Islam spread in the region. While developments in the political and military fields led to the emergence of great states, developments in the scientific and cultural fields brought about the creation of powerful scholars and important works in the region. The dominant Muslim identity in the Indian subcontinent has been shaped along the Hanafi-Māturīdī line. Although there are followers of other sects, the majority has adhered to this tradition from the earliest times to the present day. The region's dense population has made it one of the most active and productive centers of the Hanafi school. Especially with the developments of the past few centuries, it can be said that a perspective inclined toward the Ahl al-Hadith understanding has taken shape among the Hanafis of the region.
In addition to works on substantive law (furū al-fiqh) and methodology of law (usūl al-fiqh), the Hanafi of the region also wrote important works in other fields, especially Qur’anic commentary (tafsīr) and prophetic traditions (hadith). The region produced many Indian scholars who contributed to Islamic sciences at various levels and genres by writing in local languages as well as Arabic. One of these scholars, al-Tahānawī (d. after 1158/1745), educated himself in religious and rational sciences by following an autodidact method and prepared an encyclopedia of terms called Kashshāf Iṣṭilāḥāt al-Funūn wa al-ʿUlūm as a product of the method he followed during his studies. Al-Kashshāf is considered one of the most comprehensive dictionaries of terms in the history of Islamic sciences. The book compiles and explains terms from a wide range of disciplines—including religious sciences, philosophical sciences, various branches of poetry and art, mining, and occult sciences—in alphabetical order. It contains more than three thousand entries, of which 41% pertain to religious sciences, 33% to rational sciences, and 16% to linguistic sciences. The two fields in which the entries on religious sciences are concentrated are Islamic law and Sufism. This is not only related to the intrinsic value of Islamic law but also to the fact that al-Tahānawī was a Hanafi jurist. The author of a work titled Aḥkām al-Arāḍī, al-Thānawī was a jurist who also served as a judge for a time and contributed to the Ḥanafī school of law both through his writings and his judicial service.
Kashshāf contains more than five hundred entries related to Islamic law. Approximately two-thirds of these are about the concepts of substantive law and one-third are about methodology of law. The number of entries on concepts related to history, literature, and sub-disciplines of Islamic law is very small. In preparing these articles, al-Ṭahānawī consulted a very large pool of sources. This feature is in line with the function the author attributes to the book. He wanted to prepare this work to show that a student could learn the sciences without resorting to teachers. In order to realize this aim, he kept the volumes of the entries large and conveyed the information he presented with a strict reference system by pointing to the sources. Although the author’s sources vary according to periods and regions, he mainly uses texts that came to prominence in the later period of Islamic sciences. This shows that the book relies on the accumulation of knowledge shaped in what is seen as the period of renewal or the second classical period of Islamic thought. In the entries on Islamic law, the literature shaped around certain books stands out.
This article will first provide information about al-Thānawī as a Ḥanafī author and jurist. It will then focus on how the sciences of fiqh are presented in Kashshāf, analyze the data regarding the enumeration and classification of entries related to Islamic law, and examine the frequency with which the author references various sources. The article will discuss the possibility of reading the book as a dictionary of Islamic law by placing Kashshāf within the tradition of the writing of the terms of jurisprudence (ıștılāhāt fıqhiyya).
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Tehânevî’nin Keşşâf’ında Fıkıh İlimleri: Muhteva ve Kaynak Odaklı Bir Değerlendirme
Abstract
Hint alt kıtası İslamiyet’in bölgede yayıldığı asırlardan bugüne dek nüfus ve etkinlik bakımından İslam dünyasının en hareketli, ilmî açıdan en yoğun ve üretken merkezleri arasında yer almıştır. Hanefî mezhebinin yaygın olduğu bölgede fürû ve usûl-ı fıkha dair eserlerin yanı sıra tefsir ve hadis başta olmak üzere diğer sahalarda da önemli eserler kaleme alınmıştır. Bölgede, Arapçanın yanı sıra mahalli dillerle de birçok eser vererek İslamî ilimlere muhtelif düzey ve türlerde katkıda bulunmuş birçok Hintli alim yetişmiştir. Bu alimlerden biri olan Tehânevî (ö. 1158/1745’ten sonra), otodidakt bir yöntem takip ederek dinî ve aklî ilimlerde kendisini yetiştirmiş; tahsili esnasında takip ettiği yöntemin bir ürünü olarak Keşşâfu ıstılâhâti’l-fünûn ve’l-‘ulûm adını verdiği bir terimler ansiklopedisi hazırlamıştır. Bir bilimler ve sanatlar ansiklopedisi olan Keşşâf, ilim kavramı ve muhtelif ilim tasniflerine dair ayrıntılı bir girişle başlar. İslam ilimler tarihinde kaleme alınmış en geniş kapsamlı ıstılahlar/terimler sözlüğü kabul edilen kitapta, dinî ilimlerden felsefî ilimlere, şiir ve sanatın muhtelif şubelerinden madencilik ve gizli ilimlere kadar bütün bilimler ve sanatlarla ilgili terimler derlenmiş ve alfabetik bir sırayla açıklanmıştır. Kitapta üç bini aşkın başlık mevcut olup fıkıh ilimleriyle ilgili terimler sayıca birinci sırada gelir. Bu durum, fıkıh ilminin öz değeriyle ilgili olduğu kadar Tehânevî’nin bir Hanefî müellif fakih olmasıyla da yakından ilgilidir. Bu makalede ilk olarak Tehânevî’nin fıkhî yönüyle ilgili bilgiler verilecek, ardından Keşşâf’ta fıkıh ilimlerinin nasıl takdim edildiği üzerinde durulacak, fıkıhla ilgili maddelerin sayım ve tasnifiyle ilgili veriler tahlil edilecek, müellifin hangi kaynaklara ne sıklıkta müracaat ettiği yine veriler üzerinden işlenecektir. Makale, Keşşâf’ı ıstılâhât-ı fıkhiyye yazım geleneği içerisine yerleştirerek kitabı bir fıkıh sözlüğü olarak okumanın imkânını tartışacaktır
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