الذخيرة البرهانية المسمى ذخيرة الفتاوى

al-Dhakhirah al-Burhaniyyah al-Musamma Dhakhirat al-Fatawa

A monumental early reference work of Ḥanafī Fiqh and Fatwā, by the eminent Transoxanian jurist Burhān al-Dīn Abū al-Maʿālī Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz ibn Māzah al-Bukhārī (d. 616 AH), one of the leading scholars of the influential Āl Burhān family of Bukhara. Al-Dhakhīrah al-Burhāniyyah, also known simply as Dhakhīrat al-Fatāwā, is counted among the important early repositories of Ḥanafī legal doctrine, particularly the literature of fatāwā, nawāzil and wāqiʿāt—legal questions arising from actual cases and new circumstances.

The author explains the genesis of the work in its introduction. His uncle, the celebrated al-Ṣadr al-Shahīd Ḥusām al-Dīn, had gathered questions upon which fatwās had been sought, referring the answer in each case to a reliable book or recognised Imām. Burhān al-Dīn himself had likewise collected questions presented to him for fatwā in his youth, and later compiled another body of cases during his residence in Samarqand. He eventually decided to bring these collections together, organise them systematically into books and chapters, and enrich them with further material. He named the resulting compilation al-Dhakhīrah and states that he filled it with numerous additional benefits.

This background explains one of the book's greatest strengths: it brings together the established doctrine of the madhhab and the applied jurisprudence of later Ḥanafī authorities. Ibn Māzah records the rulings of the Ẓāhir al-Riwāyah—the foundational transmitted positions of Imām Abū Ḥanīfah and his principal disciples—while supplementing them with material from the nawādir, the fatwās and legal precedents of later mashāyikh, and the answers given to actual cases. He also frequently explains the reasoning and evidence behind individual rulings rather than merely recording the final fatwā.

The work covers virtually the entire range of classical Ḥanafī jurisprudence, proceeding from Ṭahārah, Ṣalāh, Zakāh, Ṣawm and Ḥajj through marriage and family law, transactions, sales, leasing, partnership, suretyship and debt, waqf, gifts, deposits, usurpation and other property questions, before proceeding to judiciary and testimony, criminal law, oaths, vows and numerous other subjects. The sheer range of actual cases preserved in the work makes it especially valuable for understanding how the principles of the madhhab were applied to practical legal problems, rather than studying them only in the abstract. The contents of the printed volumes confirm this exceptionally broad legal coverage.

Its importance is also apparent from its extensive use by later Ḥanafī jurists. The work belongs to the body of early authoritative sources from which the later encyclopaedic fatwā tradition drew, preserving opinions and cases of the Central Asian Ḥanafī school that subsequently passed into the mainstream legal literature. It is therefore particularly valuable for advanced students researching the development of the madhhab, the distinction between Ẓāhir al-Riwāyah and later fatwā positions, and the jurisprudence of the mashāyikh.

The Dār al-Kutub al-ʿIlmiyyah edition is especially significant as a very large modern publication of this previously difficult-to-access work. It was critically prepared by a scholarly team comprising Abū Aḥmad al-ʿĀdilī and others, and was published in Beirut in 1440 AH / 2019 CE. The complete set consists of 15 large hardback volumes comprising 8,224 pages