The treatise «Yatimat ad-dahr fi fatawa ahl al-’asr» (A Unique collection of fatwas of our time scholars) and the problem of its authorship
Abstract
This article analyzes one of the classical works «Yatimat ad-dahr fi fatawa ahl al-’asr» (a Unique collection of fatwas of our time scholars) by a traditional for the Volga Region Muslim Hanafi School of Theology ( madhhab ). Most biographical writings ascribe the authorship of this work to Muhammad Ibn Mahmud at-Tarjumani (d. 645/1247). But the authors of the paper, having analyzed the manuscripts, which were compiled to form the work and having examined the Ijaza of al-Zamakhshari, naming arrays of his students, found out that the work actually belongs to the pen of his grandfather ‘Abd ar-Rahim Ibn’ Umar at-Tarjumani (approx. born in 515/1122). As well as the authors managed to identify some events concerning the biography of the theologian, for example, they made an assumption about his date of birth and revealed some textual features of this work.