A Canonical Lost Text in the Literature of the Ģanafī Fiqh: Mukhtaŝar al-Karkhī Mukhtaŝars have been preferred in the teaching of Islamic law because they were simply short and concise form of legal problems (masā'il). These books became the primary sources in conveying the madhhab masā'il to the following generations after a certain point in history. From among them, al-Mukhtaŝar by al-Karkhī, the then head of the Hanafī fuqahā' in Baghdad and one of the earliest authors of mukhtaŝar, was very

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... important. This work served as the main source of Qudūrī's al-Mukhtaŝar which was an exemplary text for the mukhtaŝars of the Hanafī madhhab during the classical period. While Karkhī's thoughts in legal theory had an impact on the usūl al-fiqh of the madhhab, his al-Mukhtaŝar also influenced the articulation of the furū' fiqh through Qudūrī's al-Mukhtaŝar. It thus became a guiding text for following mukhtaŝars of the madhhab in the classical period.