Abstract
In addition to the content of the books that that were written in the Islamic science history, they also have features such as the date of writing, their copies, the narrators who transmitted them and the isnads from which they were narrated. Each book is distinguished from other works with such unique features, and these details are used to resolve the conflicts that have arisen in the historical process. This information is of vital importance, especially when it comes to hard-to-resolve disputes about manuscripts or works that have not survived. We can find works belonging to various branches of science and information about these books in bibliographic sources that compile information about books. These disputes can be resolved to a large extent by using secondary sources that provide interlinear information about books as well as bibliographic sources. Among the commentaries of Masābīh al-Sunnah, an annotation named Miftah al-futuh of an unknown author is mentioned. There is limited information about this work. In the works listing the commentaries, Ashraf al-Fuqqā‘ī (d. after 707) and Ibn al-Fuqqā‘ī (d. 715/1315) are also recorded as Masābīh commentators. Although there is not much information about Ashraf al-Fuqqā‘ī, Tībī (d. 743/1343) and later scholars quoted from him with words such as "Kale al-Ashraf". Ibn al-Fuqqā‘ī is known as the author of some Masābīh commentaries that have survived to the present day. In this study, it is aimed to determine the author of Miftāh al-futūh. For this, first of all, the information in the bibliographic sources and the records in the manuscripts were taken into consideration. In addition, references to the author or the work in other writings, information in library catalogues, footnotes in current research, and investigations were examined to determine to whom it belongs. Since the new data in the literature studies lead to developing and sometimes changing the findings, the results are expressed to the extent that they can be confirmed with manuscripts. In cases when a definite conclusion cannot be reached, possible results are pointed out in order to enable further studies. In Kashf al-Zunūn, Kātib Jalabī (d. 1067/1657) introduces Miftāh al-futūh as an annotation with an unknown author, transmitted under pseudonyms from four sources and completed on 21 Ramadan 707. This information is consistent with the manuscripts we have reached. Its author is Ashraf al-Fuqqā‘ī, as stated in the text or completion information parts of the manuscripts. Kātib Jalabī may have seen a copy of the work that does not have an author's record and took the notes. Ashraf al-Fuqqā‘ī lived in Tabriz during a period of Mongol destruction and political turmoil. Our lack of information about his life and works is probably related to the period and environment in which he lived. Tībī, who lived in the same city and at the same time as the author, referred to this commentary a lot and made evaluations about some of his views. In Miftah al-futūh, especially the quotations from the sources of garību'l-hadith and the comments made by the author about the hadiths draw attention. These features, which reflect the scholarly personality of the author, have affected the inclusion of the commentary in later sources. Although the manuscripts have survived to the present day (examples can be found in the appendices), it is noteworthy that many authors have reached the text through Tībī. Ashraf al-Fuqqā‘ī and Ibn al-Fuqqā‘ī are suitable to be confused with each other in terms of their names and nisbes. However, in our analysis, there are differences between the two authors in terms of the names of their grandfathers, their tags, the city they live in and the sects they belong to. There is erroneous or incomplete information in various studies about these two authors and the work today. This confusion is cleared by the findings presented in the article.