The Commentary Literature on Maṣābīḥ al-Sunnah Abstract

Abstract

Al-Farrāʾ al-Baghawī's (d. 516/1122) hadith compilation named Maṣābīḥ al-Sunnah has been attracted attention since the day it was written and has been read in madrasahs and ḥadith schools in different societies. As a result of this interest, many commentaries were written on the book in different periods. Studies listing al-Maṣābīḥ commentaries mostly contain repetition of each other and complicated information. This is because researchers use only the information in books and library catalogues. In addition, there is not much information about the characteristics of the commentaries. In this article, al-Maṣābīḥ commentaries are determined, analyzed, and evaluated by considering their common and different aspects. For this, first of all, only the list of commentaries is presented, and without introducing the authors and their works, sources are cited because of the limited scope of this paper. Additionally, in the case of disagreements about the author and the work, these are also mentioned. In this article, 25 commentaries of al-Maṣābīḥ that have survived to the present day have been identified, and along with the 6 published commentaries, 19 commentaries in manuscript form are listed. It has been determined that 4 commentaries mentioned in the sources are missing, and 11 commentaries that cannot be confirmed by external information are attributed only to their authors. While evaluating the commentaries, a comparison was made by taking into account the region and period in which the authors lived and their scientific personalities. Afterwards, the characteristics of the commentaries are examined, and it is tried to draw attention to the common and special aspects of the commentaries. Additionally, the main commentaries of al-Maṣābīḥ and other commentaries that benefited from them have been determined. Commentaries containing special information have also been touched on. The scholars and works on which the commentators based on their interpretations are examined under the heading of sources and interaction. Also, in this section, the extent to which the commentaries of al-Maṣābīḥ are sources for each other and the following works have been examined. At the end of the article, basic information about the commentaries of Maṣābīḥ al-Sunnah has been added as a table.