Introduction

Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Dasuqi (d. 1230 AH / 1815 CE) was a towering Maliki scholar of late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Egypt. He studied at al-Azhar under many of the same teachers who had shaped al-Dardiri's generation and became a leading figure in both Maliki jurisprudence and Islamic theology. His name is most firmly attached to the present work — Hashiyat al-Dasuqi 'ala al-Sharh al-Kabir — an extensive marginal commentary (hashiyah) written on al-Dardiri's Al-Sharh al-Kabir, which was itself a commentary on Mukhtasar Khalil. Al-Dasuqi's hashiyah transforms the two-layer structure of matn and sharh into a three-tiered edifice of Maliki legal scholarship, and it is at this third level that the school's full analytical depth is on display.

A hashiyah in the classical Islamic scholarly tradition is not a simple gloss but a rigorous secondary commentary. Al-Dasuqi's work engages al-Dardiri's explanations critically: he probes the reasoning behind al-Dardiri's choices, surfaces cases where other Maliki imams held different positions, examines the evidential basis of rulings, and records important distinctions that the sharh passed over in the interest of brevity. In this way, Hashiyat al-Dasuqi serves as the gateway to the broader Maliki scholarly conversation — connecting the operative rulings of Mukhtasar Khalil to the reasoning of al-Mudawwanah, Ibn Rushd's Bidayat al-Mujtahid, and the major Maliki masters of the Maghrebi and Egyptian traditions.

The scholarly contribution of the Hashiyah extends well beyond annotation. Al-Dasuqi frequently adjudicates between positions recorded by al-Dardiri, identifies which view is stronger or more widely practiced, and notes regional differences in practice across the Maliki world — distinctions that matter enormously for a school whose rulings were historically applied across Egypt, the Maghreb, the Sudan, and West Africa. His analysis of operative ('amal) and preferred (mashhur) positions reflects deep engagement with both the textual tradition and the living application of Maliki law in his time.

Hashiyat al-Dasuqi is the culminating reference for students who have already worked through Al-Sharh al-Kabir. It should not be approached independently — the hashiyah presupposes full familiarity with al-Dardiri's commentary and, through it, with Mukhtasar Khalil. For the advanced student or the Maliki mufti, however, Hashiyat al-Dasuqi is an indispensable tool: questions that Al-Sharh al-Kabir leaves open, or where the relied-upon position requires careful verification, will almost always find resolution here. Together, al-Dardiri and al-Dasuqi form the standard reference pair of the Maliki school — comparable in their joint authority to the pairing of al-Ramli and Ibn Hajar al-Haytami in the Shafi'i tradition.