Awn al-Din Abu'l-Muzzafar Yahya ibn Hubayra al-Shaybani al-Duri al-Baghdadi (; 1105-1165), commonly referred to as Ibn Hubayra, was a 12th-century
Iraq
Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...
i Arab official and a Hanbali
jurist
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
, who served for sixteen years as
vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...
of the
Abbasid Caliphate
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 ...
under Caliph
al-Muqtafi
Abu Abdallah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Mustazhir ( ar, أبو عبد الله محمد بن أحمد المستظهر; 9 April 1096 – 12 March 1160), better known by his laqab, regnal name al-Muqtafi li-Amr Allah (), was the List of Abbasid calip ...
, and his successor
al-Mustanjid
Abū'l-Muẓaffar Yusuf ibn Muhammad al-Muqtafi ( ar, أبو المظفّر يوسف بن محمد المقتفي; 1124 – 20 December 1170) better known by his regnal name Al-Mustanjid bi'llah ( ar, المستنجد بالله) was the Abbasid ...
.
Biography
Ibn Hubayra was born on Rabi II 499
A.H. (December 1105 / January 1106 CE) in Dur, a village northwest of
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 ...
. As a youth, he went to Baghdad where he received a classical Arabic education under several masters, studying the
Qur'an
The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , sing. ...
, Arabic linguistics, and the
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 ...
school of Islamic jurisprudence (''
fiqh
''Fiqh'' (; ar, فقه ) is Islamic jurisprudence. Muhammad-> Companions-> Followers-> Fiqh.
The commands and prohibitions chosen by God were revealed through the agency of the Prophet in both the Quran and the Sunnah (words, deeds, and ...
'').
He was appointed as the chief of the treasury by caliph al-Muqtafi, and in 1149, he was appointed as the
vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called '' katib'' (secretary), who was ...
(chief minister) of the Caliphate, a post he kept for sixteen years until his death on 27 March 1165, commonly attributed to poisoning through his physician, who was in the pay of his rivals.
[Makdisi (1971), pp. 802–803]
His vizierate marked the final decline of the
Seljuq Seljuk or Saljuq (سلجوق) may refer to:
* Seljuk Empire (1051–1153), a medieval empire in the Middle East and central Asia
* Seljuk dynasty (c. 950–1307), the ruling dynasty of the Seljuk Empire and subsequent polities
* Seljuk (warlord) (d ...
influence in the Abbasid court (cf.
Siege of Baghdad (1157)), and saw a flowering of Hanbali learning in Baghdad. Ibn Hubayra was also involved in the conquest of
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate was an Ismaili Shi'a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries AD. Spanning a large area of North Africa, it ranged from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Sea in the east. The Fatimids, a dyna ...
Egypt
Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediter ...
by
Nur ad-Din Zangi
Nūr al-Dīn Maḥmūd Zengī (; February 1118 – 15 May 1174), commonly known as Nur ad-Din (lit. "Light of the Faith" in Arabic), was a member of the Zengid dynasty, which ruled the Syrian province (''Shām'') of the Seljuk Empire. He reig ...
.
Works
Ibn Hubayra was also an accomplished scholar. He published a multi-volume commentary on the ''
Sahih al-Bukhari
Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...
'' and the ''
Sahih Muslim
Sahih Muslim ( ar, صحيح مسلم, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ Muslim), group=note is a 9th-century ''hadith'' collection and a book of '' sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj (815–875). It is one of the most valued bo ...
'' collections of ''
hadith
Ḥadīth ( or ; ar, حديث, , , , , , , literally "talk" or "discourse") or Athar ( ar, أثر, , literally "remnant"/"effect") refers to what the majority of Muslims believe to be a record of the words, actions, and the silent approval ...
'', entitled ''al-Ifṣāḥ ‘an ma‘ānĩ'l Ṣiḥāḥ'' or ''al-Ishrāf''. He also wrote a grammar called ''al-Muqtaṣaḍ'', an abridgment of
Ibn al-Sikkit's ''Iṣlāḥ al-manṭiq'', the ''al-‘Ibādāt al-khams'', the ''Urjūza fi‘l-maqsūr wa‘l-mamdūd'', and ''Urjūza fi ‘ilm al-khaṭṭ''.
A collection of his sayings was compiled by his contemporary
Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (''al-Muqtabas min al-fawā‘id al-‘Awniyya''), who also published an anthology from the ''al-Ifṣāḥ''. Ibn al-Jawzi's works are the main source on Ibn Hubayra's life, along with a biography by the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Maristaniyya
References
Sources
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra
1105 births
1165 deaths
Iraqi Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Viziers of the Abbasid Caliphate
12th-century Arabic writers
Hanbalis
12th-century jurists
Iraqi qadis
12th-century Arabs
12th-century people from the Abbasid Caliphate