Borrowing, Modification, and Innovation of Legal Maxims in Early Ottoman Egypt: The Case of Ibn Nujaym’s Ashbāh Wa Naẓāʾir

Abstract

Ibn Nujaym was a prominent Hanafi jurist whose influential work, al-Ashbāh wa al-Naẓāʾir (the resemblances and similitudes) served as one of the primary sources for the Majallāt al-Aḥkām al-ʿAdliyya. However, despite the significance of this compilation of legal maxims, it has not been adequately studied in terms of its sources and intellectual influences. By comparing the text of Ashbāh wa Naẓāʾir by Ibn Nujaym and al-Subkī and analyzing through a historical framework, this paper argues that. Ibn Nujaym’s legal methodology was shaped by the Shāfiʿī-dominated intellectual environment of Egypt during the transition from the Mamluk era to the Ottoman empire. This study reveals that his work was strongly inspir ed by Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī’s Ashbāh wa Naẓāʾir, a well-known Shāfiʿī compilation of legal maxims. The dominance of Shāfiʿī doctrine in late Mamluk Egypt, along with the gradual decline of legal pluralism and increasing pressure to conform to the hegemonic school, led Ibn Nujaym to position himself under the Shafī’s umbrella of legal principle. We can trace this affiliation through his adoption of several structural and conceptual elements from al-Subkī’s work, such as the use of similar language, categorization styles, borrowing the main maxims, and modifying derivative maxims. His approach reflects not only a borrowing process but also a form of legal adaptation and survival within a shifting political landscape.