8vo. Volume I: Kitab al-Madhhab: 27 pp., of English text (introduction), 163 pp., of Arabic text / Volume II: Kitab Jadal al-Usul, 157 pp., of Arabic text / Volume III: Kitab Jadal al-FUQAHA’: 7 pp., of English text (foreword), 221 pp., of Arabic text / Volume IV, Part I: Kitab al-Khilaf: 7 pp., English text (foreword), 561 pp.,of Arabic text / Volume IV, Part II: Kitab al-Khilaf: 628 pp., of Arabic text, paperback binding, biblio, index, set in mint condition, Bibliotheca Islamica Bands 41 a, 41 b, 41 c, 41 da, 41 db, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart & Beirut, 1996-2002.

Synopsis

Al-Wadih fi Usul al-Fiqh, The Clear Book on Legal Theory and Methodology, is the only extant, complete, major work of Ibn Aqil, the jurisconsult, sermonist, legal mothodologist, dialectician. It has come down to us in a single copy, a unicum of three volumes, the first two of which are preserved at the National Library of Damascus, and the third in the Firestone Library of Princeton University. It has been edited with introduction and notes by George Makdisi. The work, in fact, compasses four complete and independent works by Ibn Aqil, as follows:
I- Kitab al-Madhhab, consisting of Ibn Aqil’s basic principles of legal theory and methodology.
II- Kitab Jadal al-Usul, a complete work on dialectic, jadal, for use in any field of knowledge
III- Kitab Jadal al-Fuqaha’, another work on dialectic destined for use of jurisconsults in particular
IV- Kitab al-Khilaf, in which the author deals with the disputed questions regarding the field of legal theory and methodology.