M.ZH. Kopeuly’s Treatise Risala-Yi Janāyiz: Codicology, Attribution, and Critical Text

The article presents a codicological, textological, and source studies analysis of Risāla-yi Janāyiz , a work belonging to the heritage of Mashkhur Jusip Kopeuly. The research is based on two manuscript copies: Version A preserved in Folder No. 1171 of the Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection of the Central Scientific Library of the Gylym Ordasy under the Science Committee of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan, and Version B kept in a family archive. The text previously published in the 20-volume collected works of Mashkhur Jusip under the title “Religious Sermon (Fifth Version)” is re-examined, and its authentic title and genre are clarified, proving that it is an independent fiqh treatise entitled Risāla-yi Janāyiz . The article describes the structure of the manuscripts, the characteristics of the paper, the writing style ( nastaʿlīq ), scribal features, the arrangement of folios, and textual defects, and outlines the principles of establishing a critical edition based on the two versions. The critical text is presented in Arabic script, accompanied by its transliteration into Latin script and a modern Kazakh free translation. The study identifies the linguistic layer of the work (Turki-Chagatai basis, Arabic-Persian vocabulary, Kazakh, Tatar, and Turkish elements), as well as its fiqh sources (classical works of the Hanafi school, Qur’anic verses, and hadiths). The content related to funeral rites, inheritance, fidya, isqat, and daur practices is analyzed. The socio-ethical criticism reflected in the text, particularly concerning women’s inheritance rights and distortions in funeral practices, is compared with Mashkhur Jusip’s other works to clarify issues of authorship attribution. The study concludes that Risāla-yi Janāyiz is not merely a religious-legal treatise but also a valuable source reflecting the legal, ethnographic, and spiritual life of Kazakh society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Introducing the work into scholarly circulation through a critical edition contributes to a new understanding of Mashkhur Jusip’s legacy and promotes further research into the Kazakh Islamic written tradition.