In this new work on the Mudawwana of Abū Ghānim Bishr b. Ghānim al-Khurāsānī, Professor Muranyi provides a significant contribution to the growing literature on the formative period of Ibadi fiqh in the second/eighth century by laying the necessary analytical groundwork for an eventual critical edition of the text. The Mudawwana is not merely the first compendium of Ibadi law, as suggested by the title of Muranyi's study; it is also one of the most important legal works of the early period of Ibadi jurisprudence, a product of one of the leading scholars of the late second and early third century ah. Abū Ghānim's work, then, sheds light on the progression of legal thought and of the status of the Ibadi circles in Iraq during this period. However, such an analysis of content must rest first on an understanding of the chronology of the work's collection, over which Muranyi casts doubt. Such doubt renders this study necessary prior to a dedicated monograph on the Mudawwana.
Muranyi divides his focus in this study between first elaborating his theory about the collection of the work and then exploring its content and context. In the first half of the book he thus suggests that the arrangement of the chapters and units of the text across different manuscripts, as well as the repetition of legal topics and questions, are evidence that the collection of the work postdates its author. Evidence for his theory comes both from the work itself and from similar works. The interpolations in the published editions of the text, for instance, might be traced to source manuscripts when the pages of double-folded booklets fall out of order and are copied without correction. Likewise, he references his earlier work on the Mudawwana of Saḥnūn b. Saʿīd (d. 240/854) as an analogous collection where autonomous units sorted into bundles of booklets make up the whole, and over time, copyists gain access to slightly different sets of bundles. His conclusion, having established the late collection of the work, is that with further study it will be possible to produce a text closer in form to the hypothetical old codex, which is missing.
In the second half of the book Muranyi turns to the content of the text and contextualizes the type of terms and sources presented in the work. Three themes of special interest to the scholar interested in the formation of Ibadi law emerge: the lack of development of a biographical literature about legal authorities similar to the ʿilm al-rijāl in the Sunni tradition (chapter 4.1); the lack of proper isnāds supporting prophetic ḥadīths (chapter 5.1); and the early elaboration of some basic ideas of uṣūl al-fiqh (chapter 6.4). These three themes are of growing interest to scholarship on this period of Ibadi thought in general, as scholars of Ibadism increasingly seek to answer why the mechanics of ḥadīth criticism appeared in Ibadi scholars’ works so much later than in that of their Sunni counterparts.
The value of Muranyi's uncovering of these three themes from the content of the Mudawwana should not be understated. The lack of full isnāds supporting prophetic ḥadīth reports, for instance, is not mere happenstance. As there is a similarly noticeable lack in other Ibadi works of the same period, it seems that many of the ḥadīths reported in texts such as these were sufficiently well known to the community that such citation practices were unnecessary. Abū Ghānim's collection adds further evidence to this emerging consensus. Along with the significant lack of isnāds and biographical material, Muranyi shows that there are significant precursors to al-Shāfiʿī’s elaboration of uṣūl al-fiqh. For example, a theory of the distinctiveness of the Quran and sunna emerges from Abū Ghānim's presentation of the position of his teacher Abū l-Muʾarrij (d. 195/811) on the Quranic abrogation of the practice of masḥ, the wiping of the shoes, in ablution. Abū l-Muʾarrij argues that only the Quran can abrogate the Quran and only the sunna can abrogate the sunna, suggesting a more fully developed sense of differentiation between them than previously imagined by, for example, Joseph Schacht.
This study requires its readers to be familiar with both the contours of the early Ibadi legal school and the formative period of Islamic law in general in order to follow the evidence presented in Muranyi's sparse prose to his conclusions. The effort is worthwhile, however; the author notes that the Mudawwana is exceptional among similar works of its time, in addition to its value as the first compendium of Ibadi law. Furthermore, the author's study of the work does not obviate the need for the reader to explore the Mudawwana independently. Instead, the reader is inspired by Muranyi's appreciation of the text; in the seventh chapter on the dialogue style used by Abū Ghānim, the author praises the work for its “spiritedness and vitality” in presenting legal topics “in a clear and sometimes amusing dialogue style” (p. 107).
Muranyi's important analysis of the history of the collection of this text brings increased value both to approaching the text itself and to the current state of our evolving understanding of the formative period of Ibadi law. In a slim volume, he presents his theory for the late collection of the materials of the Mudawwana as evidenced by the discrepancies and repetitions found in the relevant manuscripts, highlights the internal disagreements among the Ibadi scholars consulted by the author and their orientation toward non-Ibadi contemporaries, and contributes to a discussion currently occurring across the field of Ibadi studies about the role of prophetic ḥadīth and sunna in the formative period. The field would benefit greatly if Professor Muranyi turns his attention next to the monographic approach to this work which he observes in his conclusion is “surprisingly missing”.
