Malik b. Anas (d.AH 179/795 AD): Kitab al-Muwatta' (juz I)

GRANADA, 13TH/14TH CENTURY

Details
Malik b. Anas (d.AH 179/795 AD): Kitab al-Muwatta' (juz I)
Granada, 13th/14th Century
Islamic jurisprudence and theology, Arabic manuscript on vellum, 76ff. with 24ll.of elegant sepia maghribi, additional text written vertically and horizontally, final folio with note stating that this copy was finished in the Great Mosque of Granada, very light staining and worming, some folios replaced, in later brown morocco binding with flap
Folio 11½ x 8½in. (29.5 x 22cm.)
Sale room notice
This manuscript is signed on folio 157 Masham (?) b. Sa'd b. Khalif al-Ghasani in hejira 542 in Granada in the Great mosque. This is equivalent to 1147 A.D. of the christian calendar.

Lot Essay

This is the first part of a huge work on Islamic law written by Malik b. Anas, Imam of the Madhab of the Malikis, one of the four orthodox schools of Islamic law. The author spent his life in Medina learning about and preserving the traditions of the Prophet, collated in his monumental work al-Muwatta'.Its object is to give a survey of law and justice. The present text is incomplete, beginning abruptly and ending with the book of divorce.

Malikism was introduced into Muslim Spain as early as the end of the 2nd/8th century by Andalusian scholars who exercised real power throughout the duration of the Umayyad dynasty. A note at the bottom of the final folio states that this book was finished in the Great Mosque of Granada, giving a terminus ante quem of 1492, the date of the fall of that city to the Castilians. The likelihood is that this manuscript dates from the 13th or 14th century.

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