8vo. clii, 202 pp of French text, [2], 93 pp of Arabic text, UNCUT, publisher’s original wrappers, lightly foxed, title printed in red & black on spine & front cover, Institut Français de Damas, Damascus, 1958.

Synopsis

Henri Laoust ( born in 1905), a French scholar who contributed several works covering different aspects of Islam. He was a director of the French Institute at Cairo ( 1941), and a member of Al-Majma’ Al-Ilmi Al-Arabi at Damascus ( 1965). In this work he introduces and translate into French Kitab Al-Sharh Wal Ibana Ala Usul Al Sinna Wal Diyana of Ibn Batta Al-Ukabari ( 927-997).
Ibn Batta studied in Baghdad and stayed for a long time in Makkah. His works deals mainly with Fikh and Hadith. He through his doctrinal works and his sermons, belongs to the great tradition of Hanbali polemic.
This work is one of his first disciples, and he himself can be considered as an excellent example of the Sunni opposition to the Buyd regime, which was favoured Shi’ism and, to a lesser degree, Mu’tazilah and Falsafa. His influence was profound and lasting. Under the Ayyubids there was a revival of interest in Ibn Batta’s dogmatic works with the Damascus traditionalist Abd al-Ghani al-Makdisi. Also under the Mamluk, Ibn Taymiyya and several of his disciples were interested in the works of Ibn Batta. [ Encyclopaedia of Islam.]