Taʾsīs al-Nazāʾir: First and Second Versions, critically edited by Prof. Murteza Bedir, has been published within the İSAM “Classical Works” Series. The work includes the critical editions of both the version previously published under the title Taʾsīs al-Naẓar and, for the first time, the earlier version identified through this study, alongside the critical editions of al-Karḫī’s al-Uṣūl and al-Samarqandī’s commentary on this work.

The work Taʾsīs al-Nazāʾir is one of the pioneering examples of the genre of qawāʿid (qawāʿid kulliyya), which deals with the fundamental principles of Islamic law and of which a more developed form is observed at the beginning of the Mecelle. At the same time, it is an original contribution that examines, within the framework of the science of khilāf, the foundations upon which the divergences of opinion among Islamic legal schools rest. For this reason, Taʾsīs al-Nazāʾir may be considered among the earliest examples—indeed, possibly the very first—of the taḫrīj al-furūʿ ʿala al-uṣūl literature, which is based on reducing juristic disagreements to legal principles and which later developed into a distinct tradition.

This work had previously been published several times under the title Taʾsīsu ʾn-Naẓar and attributed to Abū Zayd al-Dabūsī (d. 430/1039). However, in the present critical edition prepared by Prof. Murteza Bedir, it has been demonstrated that the authentic title of the work is Taʾsīs al-Nazāʾir and that its author is Abū Jaʿfar Aḥmad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Shīrmārī (mid-5th/11th century).

In Bedir’s study, all extant manuscript copies of the work were collected, the stemma of manuscript families was established, and two distinct versions of the text were identified. Based on fourteen manuscript witnesses, the two versions have been published under the titles “Taʾsīs I” and “Taʾsīs II.” Within this framework, Taʾsīs II represents a re-edition of the previously published version, while Taʾsīs I has been published for the first time in this study. In this respect, the edition provides a model for how classical works that exist in multiple versions should be critically edited in accordance with scholarly principles.

Furthermore, the work includes critical editions of the celebrated Baghdadi Ḥanafī jurist Abū ʾl-Ḥasan al-Karḫī’s Uṣūl al-Karḫī and the commentary on it written by al-Nasafī, which explains the text with illustrative examples. Both have been edited by Bedir and appended to the end of Taʾsīs al-Nazāʾir in keeping with the tradition of its transmission.

This comprehensive critical edition, which largely remedies the deficiencies of earlier editions of Taʾsīs al-Nazāʾir and Uṣūl al-Karḫī, constitutes a valuable contribution to the scholarly literature by making available, for the first time, the original version of Taʾsīs al-Nazāʾir.