Al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā’s Oeuvre and Thought in Context: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmission

This book is a detailed analysis of the reception and transmission of the doctrinal, legal, literary, and exegetical oeuvre of al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā, arguably one of the most important thinkers of the medieval period, within and beyond Twelver Shīʿīsm.

The study undertakes an archaeological inquiry of sorts into al-Murtaḍā’s monographic works and their transmission through an analysis of their manuscript tradition from al-Murtaḍā’s time until the contemporary period, covering the full range of the disciplines that he addressed. Inspired by similar quests undertaken by scholars of early modern Europe, this study also pays special attention to the various clusters of one-volume libraries of al-Murtaḍā’s writings, the earliest witnesses of which can be traced back to the sixth/twelfth and seventh/thirteenth centuries, and it discusses their astoundingly linear transition from manuscript to print. The resulting insights into the transmission of al-Murtaḍā’s oeuvre allow for a careful reconstruction of the relative chronology of al-Murtaḍā’s works in the various disciplines, a necessary foundation for future in-depth analysis of the development of his theological, legal, and exegetical thought.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Introduction

Acknowledgements

The Reception and Transmission of al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā’s Oeuvre and Thought

1 Monographic works
1.1 Introduction

1.2 Works received mainly among Šīʿīs: K. al-Šāfī fī l-imāma, K. al-Muqniʿ fī

l-ġayba, K. al-Intiṣār, al-Nāṣiriyyāt, and K. Ǧumal al-ʿilm wa-l-ʿamal

1.3 Works received in Šīʿī circles and beyond (I): K. Tanzīh al-anbiyāʾ wa-l-aʾimma
1.4 Works received in Šīʿī circles and beyond (II): K. Ġurar al-fawāʾid (Amālī)
and Takmilat al-Ġurar
1.5 Adab and poetry: Dīwān, Ṭayf al-ḫayāl, al-Šihāb fī l-šayb wa-l-šabāb, and
Šarḥ al-Qaṣīda al-muḏahhaba
1.6 Legal theory: K. al-Ḏarīʿa ilā uṣūl al-šarīʿa
1.7 Doctrinal thought: K. al-Ḏaḫīra, K. al-Mulaḫḫaṣ, and al-Mūḍiḥ ʿan ǧihat
iʿǧāz al-Qurʾān
1.8 al-Fuṣūl al-muḫtāra, and “al-Ḥikāyāt”
1.9 Refutations of Yaḥyā b. ʿAdī, and K. al-Inṣāf
2 Miscellanies
2.1 Transmitting al-Murtaḍā’s writings during the Safavid period
2.2 The “al-Fāḍil al-Hindī Codex” and its reception
2.3 The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
2.4 Transcription of al-Murtaḍā’s writings during the twentieth century.. 358
3 From manuscript to print
4. Doubtful and spurious works

5. Al-Murtaḍā’s lost writings on jurisprudence
   6. Towards a chronology of al-Murtaḍā’s writings
   Appendices
   1 Structure of Zaydī, Muʿtazilī, and Imāmī uṣūl al-fiqh works in the fifth/
   eleventh century
   2 al-Murtaḍā’s K. Tanzīh al-anbiyāʾ, a principal source for Faḫr al-Dīn al-Rāzī’s
   K. ʿIṣmat al-anbiyāʾ
   3 Introductory phrases to al-Murtaḍā’s K. al-Ġurar
   4 Internal and codicological divisions of al-Murtaḍā’s K. al-Ġurar
   5 Al-Murtaḍā’s Dīwān (volumes 1 and 2) as arranged in Ms. Qum, Marʿašī
   13901 (copied by al-Ḥurr al-ʿĀmilī and dated 7 Muḥarram 1088 [16 March
   1677]) versus its arrangment according to the poem’s rhymes (qawāfī) in
   Rašīd al-Ṣaffār’s edition
   6 Al-Murtaḍā’s Dīwān (volumes 5 and 6) as arranged in Ms. Naǧaf, Maktabat
   al-Imām Amīr al-Muʾminīn al-ʿĀmma 412 (copied by Muṣṭafā b. Muḥammad
   b. Ḥusayn b. Murtaḍā al-Ḥusaynī al-ʿĀmilī and dated 7 Raǧab 1299 [25 May
   1882]) versus its arrangement according to the poems’ rhymes (qawāfī) in
   Rašīd al-Ṣaffār’s edition
   7 Al-Murtaḍā’s Dīwān as arranged in Muḥammad al-Tūnǧī’s commentary
   versus its arrangment in Rašīd al-Ṣaffār’s edition (1958–1959)
   8 Sequence of texts in the various eleventh/seventeenth-century witnesses
   of the 574 [1179] codex
   9 List of al-Murtaḍā’s writings as recorded by al-Buṣrawī, al-Ṭūsī, al-Naǧāšī,
   and Ibn Šahrāšūb
   10 Editions, manuscripts, and extensive quotations of al-Murtaḍā’s extant
   works in secondary sources mentioned in this study, works erroneously
   attributed to al-Murtaḍā, and manuscripts of selected works by others
   11 Autoreferences in al-Murtaḍā’s writings
   12 An epitome of al-Murtaḍā’s Munāẓarat al-ḫuṣūm wa-kayfiyyat al-istidlāl
   ʿalayhim (with an interpolation [§19] gleaned from Masʾala fī aṣālat
   al-barāʾa wa-nafy l-ḥukm bi-ʿadam al-dalīl ʿalayhi) as preserved in Ms.
   Tehran, Maǧlis 4471, p. 254

13 Tentative transcription of Ms. Cambridge, Cambridge University, Taylor-
Schechter Genizah Collection, T-S NS 223.88, containing an epitome of
several sections of Inqāḏ al-bašar
14 al-Masʾala al-waǧīza fī l-ġayba, a summary of al-Murtaḍā’s al-Muqniʿ and al-
Ziyāda al-mukammal bihā K. al-Muqniʿ

Bibliographic Information

Title: Al-Šarīf al-Murtaḍā’s Oeuvre and Thought in Context: An Archaeological Inquiry into Texts and their Transmission

Author(s): Hassan Ansari & Sabine Schmidtke

Publisher: ‎ ‎ ‎UCO Press

Length: 840 pages

ISBN: 978-84-9927-684-7

Pub. Date: 2022