Letaifül-işarat Mustafa Bülent Dadaş_Website TR1_2025.jpg

One of the important juridical works of the Ḥanafī school, Letāʾif al-Ishārāt by Shaykh Badr al-Din (d. 820/1417&ndash;1418), has been published by İSAM Publications in a critical edition prepared by Assoc. Prof. Mustafa B&uuml;lent Dadaş. Letāʾif al-Ishārāt is Shaykh Badr al-Din&rsquo;s earliest work on jurisprudence. With the exception of farāʾiḍ (inheritance law), it encompasses all areas of Islamic law. Owing to its inclusion of the views of other legal schools alongside those of the Ḥanafī imams, the work constitutes a comparative legal text. In terms of the organization of topics and the use of letters and symbols to indicate individual jurists, Shaykh Badr al-Din takes Ibn al-Sāʿātī&rsquo;s (d. 694/1295) Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn as his model. However, by incorporating the views of Aḥmad b. Ḥanbal, occasionally indicating the reasoning underlying the opinions cited, and addressing a broader range of legal issues, Shaykh Bedreddin surpasses Ibn al-Sāʿātī in both scope and depth.

The extant manuscript copies of the work have been examined by the editor, and those of the highest quality were identified and relied upon in the critical edition. Prepared in accordance with the İSAM Principles for Critical Editions (İTNES), the volume also includes a substantial introductory study addressing the author&rsquo;s life and works, as well as the content, sources, methodology, manuscript tradition of Letāʾif al-Ishārāt, its comparison with other Ḥanafī legal texts, and the editorial method followed in the critical edition.

Published within the framework of İSAM&rsquo;s Late Classical Period Project, this important work brings to light a highly sophisticated text by one of the foremost jurists of the Ottoman period. The book, for various reasons, has not previously received the scholarly attention it deserves. The publication further demonstrates that Shaykh Badr al-Din&rsquo;s contribution to Islamic jurisprudence extends well beyond his well-known work Jāmiʿ al-Fuṣūlayn.