Abu Mansur ibn Yusuf, full name Abū Manṣūr 'Abd al-Malik ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf (1004/5-late 1067), was a wealthy

Hanbali The Hanbali school ( ar, ٱلْمَذْهَب ٱلْحَنۢبَلِي, al-maḏhab al-ḥanbalī) is one of the four major traditional Sunni schools (''madhahib'') of Islamic jurisprudence. It is named after the Arab scholar Ahmad ibn Hanbal ...

merchant in 11th-century

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

who was a benefactor and confidant to the

Abbasid The Abbasid Caliphate ( or ; ar, الْخِلَافَةُ الْعَبَّاسِيَّة, ') was the third caliphate to succeed the Islamic prophet Muhammad. It was founded by a dynasty descended from Muhammad's uncle, Abbas ibn Abdul-Muttalib ...

caliph al-Qa'im. He was also known by the honorific al-Shaykh al-Ajall, or "the most eminent shaykh"; according to

Ibn al-Jawzi ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Abu 'l-Faras̲h̲ b. al-Jawzī, often referred to as Ibn al-Jawzī (Arabic: ابن الجوزي, ''Ibn al-Jawzī''; ca. 1116 – 16 June 1201) for short, or reverentially as ''Imam Ibn al-Jawzī'' by ...

, he was the only person during his lifetime to have this title. He was a major proponent of traditionalist/

Ash'ari Ashʿarī theology or Ashʿarism (; ar, الأشعرية: ) is one of the main Sunnī schools of Islamic theology, founded by the Muslim scholar, Shāfiʿī jurist, reformer, and scholastic theologian Abū al-Ḥasan al-Ashʿarī in the ...

Islam against

Mu'tazili Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...

s and other "innovative" movements. Abu Mansur took

Ibn Aqil Abu al-Wafa Ali Ibn Aqil ibn Ahmad al-Baghdadi (1040–1119) was an Islamic theologian from Baghdad, Iraq. He was trained in the tenets of the Hanbali school (''madhab'') for eleven years under scholars such as the Qadi Abu Ya'la. Despite this, I ...

in as his ward after the Seljuk sack of Baghdad in 1055, during which Ibn Aqil's parents were likely killed and their home destroyed. This decision may have been recommended by Qadi Abu Ya'la, the head of the Hanbali community in Baghdad. After Abu Ya'la died in August 1066, Abu Mansur secured Ibn Aqil to succeed him the professorial chair at the mosque of al-Mansur. This was a controversial choice because of his youth and suspected rationalist sympathies, as well as because it was passing over the expected successor Sharif Abu Ja'far. Abu Mansur played a role in the controversial opening of the Nizamiyya of Baghdad in September 1067.

Nizam al-Mulk Abu Ali Hasan ibn Ali Tusi (April 10, 1018 – October 14, 1092), better known by his honorific title of Nizam al-Mulk ( fa, , , Order of the Realm) was a Persian scholar, jurist, political philosopher and Vizier of the Seljuk Empire. Rising fro ...

had originally designated Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi to be its head, but Abu Ishaq did not show up for the inauguration in protest of the fact that parts of Baghdad had been torn down (in his view, unjustly) to provide construction materials for the Nizamiyya. When Abu Ishaq did not come, Abu Mansur instead appointed Ibn al-Sabbagh to the chair and assured him that he would not allow Abu Ishaq to replace him. Why Abu Mansur did this is unknown. Nizam al-Mulk was upset and wrote to his agent in Baghdad, and Abu Ishaq ended up accepting and assumed office on 13 October. Abu Mansur died during

Muharram Muḥarram ( ar, ٱلْمُحَرَّم) (fully known as Muharram ul Haram) is the first month of the Islamic calendar. It is one of the four sacred months of the year when warfare is forbidden. It is held to be the second holiest month after R ...

, less than a month later (i.e. November or December, 1067); the cause of his death is unknown. According to

George Makdisi George Abraham Makdisi was born in Detroit, Michigan, on May 15, 1920. He died in Media, Pennsylvania, on September 6, 2002. He was a professor of oriental studies. He studied first in the United States, and later in Lebanon. He then graduated in 1 ...

, his death may not have been natural because of his conflict with Nizam al-Mulk. Based on entries in

Abu Ali ibn al-Banna Abu Ali ibn al-Banna, full name Abū 'Alī al-Ḥasan ibn Aḥmad ibn 'Abd Allāh ibn al-Bannā' al-Baghdādī al-Ḥanbalī, was an 11th-century author, scholar, and diarist from Baghdad. According to Ibn al-Sam'ani, he was one of the leading Is ...

's diary, his death appears to have been perceived as a great loss for the traditionalist camp. It also left Ibn Aqil without an influential protector and led to him being exiled in February 1069.

References

Further reading