The Epistle of the Eloquent Clarification Concerning the Refutation of Ibn Qutayba by Al-Qāḍī Al-Nuʿmān B. Muḥammad

About the Book

This book offers an early Shiite/Fatimid controversy against Sunnite scholars in matter of Islamic law. Al-Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 363/974) refutes Ibn Qutayba's (d. 276/889) argument according to which succinct legal formulas exempt civil servants from the need of long dissertations of jurists.

Book Synopsis

This is an edition of an early Shiite/Fatimid Arabic epistle that includes a controversy pertaining to several issues on Islamic law. Al-Qadi al-Nu'man (d. 363/974), the most famoust jurist of the early Fatimid period refutes the illustious Ibn Qutayba (d. 276/889). In his book Adab al-Katib, Ibn Qutayba claimed that it was enough for civil servants (kuttab) to memorize a few legal formulas in order to be able to effectively do their work without the need of long dissertations on law from jurists. In the introduction to his epistle, al-Nu'man claims that without these dissertations the civil servants would not be able to apply the law correctly. Following this, al-Nu'man launches lengthy dissertations on each one of the succinct formulas listed by Ibn Qutayba. The main argument of al-Nu'man is that the only lawgivers in Islam are the prophet Muhammad and the Imams descendents of Ali (until the seventh Imam).

Review Quotes

"The edition [...] is very useful for the scholar of Ismāʿīlī fiqh and for the knowledge of the author's thought and personality."
Rosanna Budelli in Islamochristiana 38 (2012).

About the Author

Avraham Hakim, Ph.D. (2003), University of Tel-Aviv, is lecturer on Islam and professor of Arabic at the School for Overseas Students, Tel-Aviv University. He has published extensively on the early Muslim caliphate, especially on 'Umar b. al-Khattab.