The Mudawwana Recension of Sahnûn, by Ibn al-Qasim, Abridged by GH Bousquet, Héritage Editions

This is the analysis of a text which for the knowledge of Maliki fiqh is of paramount importance: The Mudawwana.

The Mudawwana al-kubrâ is, as we know, in principle, this Major Collection, where Ibn al-Qäsim, immediate disciple of Imam Mälik ibn Anas, answers questions from a student (in our recension: Sahnän), touching the doctrine of the Master. When this is the case, the analysis does not, of course, specify it, but the work still contains other things. First, quite often (especially after the beginning), it is specified by Ibn al-Qâsim, either spontaneously or at the request of his pupil, that, Mälik having said nothing, he is providing his personal opinion on a question. This, which is expressed, in general, by stereotyped formulas, is indicated, here, by: (Q). On the other hand, if it is very rare that Sahnün himself puts himself on stage* (this almost never happens), we very often find sayings of various characters (indicated here by: Sayings) and hadiths ( indicated by: Haditbs) with the aim, most often of illustrating the doctrine“, although, quite rarely, it is true, our author reports an opinion opposed to that which he defends.

We will certainly not find here a complete summary of the mudawivana. My goal, I repeat, is to facilitate direct research in the original text, as is the case with the summaries of French case law that probably most readers do not know, among those who consult the Annales: but therefore , traditionally, our collections of court decisions are published by specialized journals, where they appear to have a double "hat": the first, very brief and in large print, contains the essential words indicating what is in question ; the second, longer and more precise, provides the solutions that emerge from the court decision, but, of course, that never exempts anyone who intends to quote it from reading it carefully. It is the same for my Analysis: it is a modest working tool. Even if, by a bold, generous and optimistic hypothesis, it was admitted that I have always understood my text, the little space at my disposal forced me to often proceed quickly: I even done systematically, in this purely ritual part, where the mudawiwana begins, because, I know (and I deplore it), the 'badät are almost always neglected in the study of the figh. So I think I'll proceed a little less summarily later.

Our work is divided into Books, themselves divided into paragraphs (of very variable length: 6130, 2 lines; 6113, 10 pages). I have numbered both of them, and this numbering must continue until the end. The index will refer to it.

In order to save space, I have not reproduced the title of each paragraph separately, but I have printed, in italics, the words of the text which correspond (usually very precisely) to those of these titles. So we can, all the same, find without difficulty paragraph (naturally not numbered) of the original at the same time that by looking only at these titles in italics in the Analysis, we have a first quick overview of the content, and which corresponds to the Table of Contents of the Arabic edition; we see immediately, thus, all that I provide in addition to a simple translation of this Table.;...