100 ḤIKMAT

Also the teacher of ʿAllāmah al-Ḥillī.⁹ Based on a note on the cover of a manuscript of the work in his possession of his dated, the author of Al-Riyāḍ has cast some doubt on Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd's authorship of the treatise, dating it 674/1275 and claiming that it was composed by Muḥadhdhab al-Dīn al-Ḥillī. Later scholars, however, see no reason for doubting its ascription to Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd, for which there is sufficient evidence.¹⁰

Yaḥyā b. Saʿīd has compiled a number of other important works among which is the esteemed Al-Jāmiʿ li al-Sharāyiʿ published in Qum. The Nuzhat al-Naẓir consists of 78 chapters, and in each, cases with similar legal rulings are classified together.

If all the "ashbāh wa al-naẓāʾir" works on fiqh are also included among the books on juridical principles (i. e. as Sunnī jurists have done), then, to be sure, this treatise was written before Al-Qawāʿid wa al-Fawāʾid of the Shahīd al-Awwal. In our opinion, however, these two works are profoundly different in their style of writing, and hence, it must be reiterated that compilation of works on juridical principles in fact began with the Shahīd al-Awwal.

B. Works on Qawāʿid al-Fiqh.

The writing of these works by Imāmī Shīʿīs can be traced to Al-Qawāʿid wa al-Fawāʾid of the Shahīd al-Awwal. In fact, research in this field indicates that an increase in the number of works on juridical principles (qawāʿid al-fiqh) by Imāmī jurists, corresponds to a gradual decrease among Sunnī jurists. It must be noted, however, that even before the Shahīd al-Awwal, discussions of juridical principles are found scattered in the pages or in the prefaces of books on fiqh and uṣūl written by Imāmiyyah jurists, namely Abū al-Makārim b. Zuhrah (511–585/1117–1189) in Ghunyat al-Nuzūʿ ilā ʿIlmay al-Uṣūl wa al-Furūʿ, al-Muḥaqqiq al-Ḥillī (602–676/1205–1277) in the Muʿtabar, or the Shahīd al-Awwal himself in Dhikrā al-Shīʿah, by in which along with the discussion of