One of the most important Ḥanafī jurists of the late Ottoman period, Ibn ‘Ābidīn (d. 1252/1836), made significant contributions to Islamic legal thought not only through his celebrated marginal commentary Radd al-Muḥtār, but also through a number of shorter treatises (rasā’il). One such treatise, Nashr al-‘urf fī binā’ baʿḍ al-aḥkām ‘alā al-‘urf, addresses the role of custom (‘urf) in legal rulings and sheds light on debates within the Ḥanafī uṣūl tradition concerning the probative value of custom. The treatise is particularly significant in that it treats the question of ‘urf as an independent subject and examines in detail situations in which custom conflicts with scriptural texts (nuṣūṣ) or with established intra-school preferences.

The aim of this study is to prepare a critical edition of the treatise and to make it available for scholarly use. The extant manuscript copies of the work have been identified, and the most reliable among them have been selected as the basis for the edition. The text has been collated on the basis of multiple manuscripts, with variant readings recorded in the footnotes. In addition, previously published editions of the work have been examined, and significant differences have been noted. Prepared in accordance with the İSAM Principles for Critical Editions (İTNES), this study also includes an analytical introduction addressing the author’s life and works, as well as the treatise’s content, sources, manuscript tradition, and the editorial methodology followed in the critical edition.

 

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