Contents

List of Illustrations vi

Shi^ti “Family” of Legal Theories: An Introduction 1

Robert Gleave and Kumail Rajani

1 Are Rulings of the Prophet Due to Ijtihad and Are all Mujtahids Always Correct?

A Chapter from the Sharh Zubdat al-usul of al-Mazandarani (d.

Robert Gleave

2 Refraining from Seeking Clarification: A Chapter from

al-Wafi ft sharh al-Wafiya of al-A^traji (d. 1227/1812) 60

Hadi Qazwini, Aun Hasan Ali, Yusuf Unal

3 Can Non-Muslims Become Experts in Islamic Law? Two Sections from the

Kawashif al-hujub ^can mushkilat al-kutub of al-Mazandarani (d. 1285/1868) 94

Amin Ehteshami and Hassan Rezakhany

4 What Makes a Hadith Transmitter Reliable? A Discussion from the

Ghayat al-madmul of al-Kazimi (d. 1065/1655) 113

Raha Rafii and Belal Abu-Alabbas

5 Debating the Epistemic Value of Hadith: A Chapter from the Fath al-bab

ila l-haqq wa-l-sawab of Mirza Muhammad al-Akhbari (d. 1232/1817) 139

Kumail Rajani and Nebil Husayn

6 The Chapter on Analogy (Qiyas) from the Hashiyat al-Fusul al-lu³lu³iyya

of Ahmad b. ^tAbdallah Ibn al-Wazir (d. 985/1577) 168

Sarah Islam and Jan Thiele

7 The Role of Consensus in Legal Hermeneutics: A Chapter from the

Qantarat al-wusul ila ^cilm al-usul of al-Mu³ayyadi (d. c. 1044/1634) 191

Robert Gleave and Kumail Rajani

8 Why Early Muslims Divided into Sects? A Chapter from the

Mukhtasar al-usul of tAli b. Muhammad b. al-Walid (d. 612/1215) 238

Kumail Rajani

Contributors 264

266

Index

Illustrations

Table 1.1 Zaydi usul works from 13th to 19th century 15

Figure 1.1 MS Kashif al-Ghita³, Najaf (#1370), p. 418 48

Figure 1.2 MS Kashif al-Ghita⁵, Najaf (#1189), p. 337 49

Figure 2.1 MS Kashif al-Ghita³, Najaf (#644), p.

Figure 2.2 MS Majlis-e Shura-ye Islami, Tehran (#7718), pp. 275-278 63

Figure 3.1 MS Kashif al-Ghita³, Najaf (#1443), p. 24 96

Figure 3.2 MS Kashif al-Ghita⁵, Najaf (#1443), p. 25 97

Figure 4.1 MS Majlis-e Shura-ye Islami, Tehran (#8081), fols. 76b-77a 116

Figure 4.2 MS Houghton Library - Harvard University, Cambridge, US

(#1651, MS Arab 231), fol. 112b 117

Figure 5.1 MS Majlis-e Shura-ye Islami, Tehran (#2797), pp. 33-36 142

Figure 5.2 MS Majlis-e Shura-ye Islami, Tehran (#8744), fols. 1b-2a 143

Figure 6.1 MS Staatsbibliothek, Glaser 180, Berlin, fol. 116a 174

Figure 6.2 MS private Yemeni library, San^ta³ (IZbACF, #110-02), fols. 102b-103a 175

Figure 7.1 MS Imam Zaid Library, San^ta³ (#622-03), fols. 56b-57a 194

Figure 7.2 MS Imam Zaid Library, San^ta³ (#622-03), fols. 58b-59a 195

Figure 8.1 MS Alavi Bohra da^cwa collection (A), Baroda, fol. 1b 242

Figure 8.2 MS Alavi Bohra da^cwa collection (A), Baroda, fol. 2a 242

Figure 8.3 MS Alavi Bohra da^cwa collection (A2), Baroda, fol. 15b 243

Figure 8.4 MS Alavi Bohra da^cwa collection (A2), Baroda, fol. 16a 243