SOURCES FOR THE LEXICAL-SEMANTIC STUDY OF FIQH TERMINOLOGY

Abstract

This article surveys the historical development of the sources for the lexical semantic study of Islamic jurisprudential terminology (fiqh), from the Prophetic era to the contemporary period. The study demonstrates that fiqh terminology is inseparably connected with the Qurʼan, the Hadith, and the practice of the Companions, and traces the evolution of scholarly sources through four principal stages: the oral transmission of the Companions; the emergence of fiqh as an independent discipline in the second century AH and the first systematized works of Abu Hanifa and Imam al-Shafiʿi; the production of dedicated terminological glossaries by scholars including Abu Ubayd al-Qasim ibn Sallam, Ibn Qutayba, Abu Mansur al-Azhari, Abu Hafs al-Nasafi, and al Mutarriziy; the philosophical-logical analysis of the middle periods; and the encyclopedic terminological dictionaries of the modern era. The article provides detailed analysis of the key individual sources al-Nasafi’s “Tilbat al-Talaba,” al-Mutarriziy’s “al-Mughrib,” al-Jurjani’s “al-Taʿrifat,” and Saʿdi Abu Jayb’s “al-Qamus al-Fiqhi” and assesses their methodological contributions to fiqh lexicography.