The Tajrīd of al-Qudūrī
A Window into the Hadith Hermeneutics of a Ḥanafī Jurist
Introduction
Widely recognized for his epitome in Ḥanafī law, Abū al-Ḥusayn al-Qudūrī (d. 428 AH) was an exceptional scholar of hadith. His encyclopedic work on khilāf-law, or judicial disagreement, between the Ḥanafīs and the Shāfiʿīs entitled al-Tajrīd demonstrates an outstanding grasp of both law and hadith. Throughout his many scholastic exchanges, al-Qudūrī ably navigates through the intricacies of the hadith sciences, albeit from a juristic prism. A multifaceted study of this voluminous work is a laborious yet welcome task. In this paper, we will briefly explore some of the hadith hermeneutics that al-Qudūrī employs throughout the Tajrīd without delving into the examples or hermeneutics themselves. The purpose here is not to establish al-Qudūrī’s rank as the leading hadith expert of his time.
This paper does, however, hope to shed light on an understudied dimension of a scholar whose authority in law is undisputed. It should be noted that the Tajrīd was not the first attempt to place Ḥanafī law in conversation with the hadith tradition. It was preceded by formative works like al-Shaybānī’s (d. 189 AH) al-Ḥujja ʿalā Ahl al-Madīna, ʿĪsā b. Abān’s (d. 220 AH) al-Ḥujaj al-kabīr, and al-Ṭaḥāwī’s (d. 321 AH) Sharḥ maʿānī al-āthār. More details on the themes and arguments covered in this study will be provided in my forthcoming book on the hadith hermeneutics of the Ḥanafī school.