Tuhfat al-Fuqaha'

Tuhfat al-Fuqaha' is a Hanafi law book by Ala' al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Samarqandi, on which his student al-Kasani built Bada'i' al-Sana'i'. ¹

The editors of al-Bada'i' quote its opening: the author saw that the Mukhtasar ascribed to al-Quduri gathered rules in common use that guide one in most cases and new events; as jurists' interest in it spread, some of his companions asked him to add some questions its author had left out and to explain its difficulties with strong evidence, so as to multiply its benefit by division and detail and, through the evidence, help the able to derive rulings; he agreed, and named it Tuhfat al-Fuqaha', "the jurists' gift", as his present to them for the sake of companionship when they returned to their home towns. ¹

The editors hold that a close reader of al-Tuhfa finds its tie with two books: al-Quduri's Mukhtasar, on which it was built, and al-Bada'i', which took up its wording in a new order. ¹ The author's daughter Fatima knew al-Tuhfa by heart. ²