Ibn Fūrak and his work named Müşkilü'l-Hadith and Beyânüh

Ibn Fūrak (d. 406/1015) is a multi-faceted scholar who lived in the tenth century. The writer, who has masterpieces in several areas such as kalam, fiqh, hadīth, is the major scholar in the third generation in Ash'arī school after Abu-l-Hasan al-Ash'arī (d. 324/936), the founder of the school. He had been extremely influential in spreading and systematizing the views of the school with his contemporary Al-Bāqillānī (d. 403/1013). Among his hundreds of books, there is also a work named Mushkil al-hadīth and bayānuh in the area of Hadith. In this study, it is tried to identify Ibn Fūrak's methods of interpretation of ahādīth especially those about khabarī attributes. His approach can be clearly seen in his work which can be considered as the first step of interpretation of khabarī attributes in Ash'arī school. The thesis consists of introduction and three chapters. The first part covers the basic concepts, historical process, importance, literature of mushkil al-hadīth and types of ishkāl in ahādīth. The second part examines Ibn Fūrak's life and his scholarly personality. The evaluation of work and its content is made in the third chapter. In this chapter Mushkil al-hadīth and bayānuh is also analysed in terms of Hadīth discipline. Ibn Fūrak's methods of explanation of mushkil ahādīth, some of his interpretations, their comparisons with those of Ibn Qutayba's (d. 276/889), and the critics of his work are discussed in the last chapter of the thesis.