The Kitāb al-Jadal of Abū Bakr ʿImād al-Dīn ʿAbdallāh b. Muḥammad al-Nūqānī al-Baghdādī al-Shāfiʿī (A Scholar of the Sixth Century): A Study and Critical Edition

Abstract

Objectives: This study contains a critical first edition of a text in the fields of Uṣūl al-Fiqh (Principles of Islamic Jurisprudence) and Jadal (Islamic Dialectics) by ʿImād al-Nūqānī, a prominent Shāfiʿī scholar in the disciplines of Fiqh, Uṣūl, and Jadal. The study also seeks to shed light on the author's biography, which remained obscure for an extended period. Methodology: The study employs an inductive approach based on collecting, analysing, comparing, and deducing information regarding the author's biography. It also utilises a historical method focused on authenticating the manuscript's attribution to the author through critical examination and validation of information on his person. Findings: Among the most significant findings of this study is the calculation of al-Nūqānī’s life span as being from the second decade to the end of the sixth century (or early seventh century) and the refutation of the manuscript's incorrect attribution to Fakhr al- Nūqānī. Originality: This study's value lies in its critical edition of a previously unedited text and in clarifying the author's biography. The text includes essential discussions such as objections to analogical reasoning (qiyās), the conditions for there being a qiyās al-ʿilla (analogical reasoning based on the effective cause), the organisation of objections in a debate, and the types of rational and transmitted evidence.