“Mishkat al-Masabih” (The Light niche) – a source of reliable Sunnah in the public education system of the Tatars of the 19th century: content and genesis

Abstract

   The article is devoted to the description of the set of hadiths “Masabih al-Sunnah” by one of the most famous encyclopedist scholars in the history of Islam, Husayn al-Baghawi. This work formed the basis of the collection of hadiths “Mishkat al-Masabih”, which became widespread throughout the Muslim world and was used in the Tatar public education system in the 19^th century. The work provides a table of contents of “Masabih al-Sunnah” and, moreover, the detailed contents of some of its chapters for a more complete picture of the collection. It also describes the additions of the author of “Mishkat al-Masabih” al-Tabrizi to the work by al-Baghawi. The paper reveals some biographical information about al-Baghawi and presents a fragment from his work “Sharh al-Sunnah” as an illustration of the author’s scholarship. “Mishkat al-Masabih” was a source of reliable Sunnah in Tatar religious schools and introduced students to a signifi cant volume of hadiths.