Author : Badr al-Dīn Muḥammad al-Shiblī

Editors :  Edward Badeen

Beirut 2017, 791 pp. Arabic, 72 pp. English text, illustrations; ISBN 978-3-87997-700-0

Ākām al-marjān fī aḥkām al-jānn (The Hills of Precious Pearls Concerning the Legal Ordinances of the Jinn) is the first critical edition of the most comprehensive monograph about Jinn and their legal ordinances in Islam, written by Badr al-Dīn al-Shiblī, a jurist and judge of the 14th century CE. The text gives an overview of all religious, denominational and philosophical theories and ordinances about the Jinn, Iblīs and all types of satanic creatures. It also contains numerable stories and anecdotes of kidnapping, intermarriage between humans and jinn, sorcery and much more. A reader can get a clear idea of the variety of subjects discussed in this book by merely looking at the titles of the 140 chapters.

The author of this text is Badr al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b. ʿAbd Allāh al-Shiblī, a famous Hanafi jurist, born in Damascus in 712/1312, who died in Tripoli in today’s Lebanon in the year 769/1367. Beside the Akām al-marjān, his best-known work is a collection of “first occurrences”, entitled Maḥāsin al-wasāʾil fī maʿrifat al-awāʾil.

This critical and fully vocalized edition is based upon the earliest five manuscripts of this text. Moreover, all book titles, authors and authorities mentioned in this work, as well as quotations, verses and technical terms were identified and if necessary explained in the critical apparatus. Extensive and detailed indices make this voluminous text easily accessible.

Dr. Edward Badeen, the editor of the text, taught Arabic and Islamic studies at several Swiss and German universities. He has published studies on Islamic mysticism and theology and edited Arabic manuscripts on history, mysticism, and theology.