Sharkhi "Mukhtasar al-Wikaya"

Before you is a manuscript that reflects the foundation of religious education in Central Asian madrasas at the end of the nineteenth century. It is a commentary on Mukhtasar al-Wiqaya, one of the best-known Hanafi legal manuals in the Islamic world.
The text was copied in Khiva in 1893 in the Uzbek language. This detail is especially significant: for centuries such works circulated mainly in Arabic and Persian, while this manuscript shows an effort to make religious knowledge more accessible to local students and readers.
Notice the layout of the page. The main text is written in elegant nastaʿliq script, while selected words and headings are highlighted in red ink. This visual structure helped readers navigate a complex legal commentary during study and teaching.
The word mukhtasar means “abridgement.” Yet behind this concise form stood an entire system of Islamic law – including prayer, trade, inheritance, and social conduct. Manuscripts like this shaped the intellectual culture of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kokand well into the early twentieth century.