Abu Al-Fath Muhammad ibn Abd Al-Hameed ibn Al-Hassan Al-Samarqandi was born in 488 A.H., corresponding to A.D. 1095. His birth place was Asmand, a village close to Samarqand in Central Asia.

Travel was still an important aspect of a scholar’s life, as every scholar could only achieve excellence through meeting a large number of senior scholars, in their respective towns and cities, attending their circles and reading under them.

However, we do not have any record of Al-Samarqandi’s travels. It is only mentioned that he arrived in Baghdad in the year when he traveled for pilgrimage, which happened to be the year of his death. We also learn that he also traveled to Marw in Persia. In Baghdad, he met a number of well known scholars and was engaged in scholarly debates, proving himself to be of the highest scholarly caliber. We also learn that he attended Ibn Al-Jawzi’s circle, who was one of the main Hanbali scholars.

This means that apart from these limited travels, he spent his life in his home town, which produced over the years a large number of distinguished scholars. Three of his teachers were of very high standard. The first was Umar ibn Abd Al-Azeez ibn Mazah Al-Bukhari, (d. 536) who was a top scholar of Fiqh, or Islamic law, distinguished for his knowledge of disagreement among the top scholars of the Hanafi school of law.

Al-Asharf ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Shuja, a well-known scholar of Fiqh was his second main teacher, while the third was Ali ibn Uthman Al-Kharrat, a scholar from Samarqand who was renowned for his piety.

The period in which Al-Samarqandi lived was one of turmoil that engulfed many parts of the Muslim world. In Samarqand itself, Sultan Malikshah occupied the area as a prelude to his drive to remove the local king who was a young, inexperienced ruler with little popularity. This was shortly before the birth of Al-Samarqandi. These events ushered a period of struggle for power. Elsewhere in the Muslim world, the Crusades had started, with the Crusaders managing to occupy Jerusalem and establish a kingdom there in 492 A.H. This occupation was accompanied by numerous killings among Muslims. Shortly afterward, the Crusaders were able to occupy Tripoli in North Lebanon, and launched an attack to conquer Damascus, but they were unable to subdue it. For nearly two centuries, the central parts of the Muslim world witnessed a continuous struggle between the Crusaders and the Muslims. As far as our scholar is concerned, the struggle continued practically throughout his life.

A different type of turmoil raged during the lifetime of Al-Samarqandi, which caused much strife by a group known as Ismaeeliyah. They were able to occupy many forts and establish several strongholds after their creed gained momentum in Esfahan, in today’s Iran, through the efforts of Al-Hassan ibn Al-Sabah. They were able to gain power in parts of Iran at different times. This shows that Al-Samarqandi’s time was one that witnessed great troubles in different parts of the Muslim world.

Al-Samarqandi was a prominent scholar of the Hanafi school of Islamic law or Fiqh, which was predominant in practically all central Asia right up to the Middle East. He wrote numerous books, mostly in Fiqh but he also wrote in other areas, particularly theology and the essence of faith. One of his books is known as Sharh Al-Hidayah, which is an explanation and annotation of an earlier book called Al-Hidayah, by Noor Al-Deen Ahmad ibn Muhammad Al-Sabooni (d. 508). Another book by Al-Samarqandi is known as Sharh Al-Ta’weelat, which is again an explanation of an earlier book by a prominent scholar. This one, Al-Ta’weelat, is an exposition of the basics of faith and the essential elements of God’s oneness as accepted by main stream Muslims, known as Ahl Al-Sunnah, by Al-Maturidi, a highly prominent scholar of the Hanafi school of law. Al-Samarqandi explains and annotates Al-Ta’weelat in a book of four volumes.

Sharh Al-Jami’Al-Kabeer is another book written by Al-Samarqandi in several volumes devoted to the explanation of Al-Jami’ Al-Kabeer by Imam Muhammad ibn Al-Hassan Al-Shaybani (d. 187). Al-Shaybani was the third most important figure in the Hanafi school, and he was the one who collected the teachings, rulings and views of Imam Abu Haneefah and his most important companion, Imam Abu Yussuf, on all subjects of Islamic scholarship and documented them in books that remained the basis of Hanafi scholarship. Al-Jami’ Al-Kabeer, as may be understood from its name, which means “the comprehensive collection,” is the most important and most detailed of these. It has been explained and annotated by a number of prominent Hanafi scholars. Al-Samarqandi was one of these, and his work is comprehensive. Other works by Al-Samarqandi show that he was highly competent in other areas of Islamic studies. However, none of these works has moved from the status of a manuscript preserved in some libraries to publication and printing except for one.

This book is given the title, Mukhtalif Al-Riwayah, which means “varying views.” It discusses controversy in matters of details in Islamic Fiqh, and how these are reported in different ways. Al-Samarqandi wrote two earlier books, Sharh Uyoon Al-Masa’il and Sharh Al-Jami’ Al-Kabeer, which outline such differences attributed to the main four Hanafi scholars, Abu Haneefah, Abu Yussuf, Muhammad ibn Al-Hassan and Zufar ibn Al-Hudhayl. This book, Mukhtalif Al-Riywayah, adds the differing views of Imam Al-Shafie and Imam Malik, the founders of two other schools of law, on each of the detailed matters discussed. As such it is a book of great value and high importance.

This book, or indeed the first part of it devoted to Islamic worship, has been thoroughly edited on the basis of comparing five manuscripts of the book, by Eissa Zaki Eissa, as his research for which he was awarded the degree of Ph.D. from the Islamic University in Madinah. It is published in a book of 470 pages by the Ministry of Religious Endowments in Kuwait.

Al-Samarqandi died in 552 A.H., corresponding to A.D. 115. May God shower His mercy on him.