ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā (1083–1149) ( ar, القاضي عياض بن موسى, formally Abū al-Faḍl ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn ʿAmr ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Mūsā ibn ʿIyāḍ al-Yaḥṣubī al-Sabtī ar, أبو الفضل عياض بن موسى بن عياض بن عمرو بن موسى بن عياض بن محمد بن عبد الله بن موسى بن عياض اليحصبي السبتي), born in
Ceuta, then belonging to the
Almoravid dynasty, was the scholar of
Maliki fiqh and great
imam
Imam (; ar, إمام '; plural: ') is an Islamic leadership position. For Sunni Muslims, Imam is most commonly used as the title of a worship leader of a mosque. In this context, imams may lead Islamic worship services, lead prayers, ser ...
of that city and, later, a
qadi in the
Emirate of Granada.
Biography
Iyaḍ was born into an established family of Arab origin in Ceuta. As a scion of a notable scholarly family, ʿIyad was able to learn from the best teachers Ceuta had to offer. The judge Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad b. ʿIsa (d. 1111) was ʿIyad’s first important teacher and is credited with his basic academic formation. Growing up, ʿIyad benefited from the traffic of scholars from al-Andalus, the Maghrib, and the eastern Islamic world. He became a prestigious scholar in his own right and won the support of the highest levels of society.
In his quest for knowledge, Iyad spent part of 1113 and 1114 visiting Cordoba, Murcia, Almeria, and Granada. He received ijāzas from the most important traditionist of his time, Abū ʿAlī al-Ṣadafī (d. 1120) in Murcia, and met with some of the most celebrated scholars of the moment, such as
Ibn al-Hajj
Moḥammed ibn al-Hajj al-Abdari al-Fasi (or Mohammed Ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed Abu Abdallah Ibn al-Hajj al-Abdari al-Maliki al-Fassi; ar, إبن الحاج العبدري الفاسي) also known simply as Ibn al-Haj or Ibn al-Hajj was a Morocca ...
(d. 1134),
Ibn Rushd (d. 1126), and
Ibn Hamdin (d. 1114).
ʿIyad was appointed judge of Ceuta in 1121 and served in the position until 1136. During his tenure as judge of Ceuta he was extremely prolific. Iyad's overall fame as a jurist and as a writer of fiqh (positive law) was based on the work he did in this city.
Iyad was also appointed the judge of Grenada where he worked for just over a year.
In doctrine Iyad to known have influenced later scholars like
Ibn Taymiyyah
Ibn Taymiyyah (January 22, 1263 – September 26, 1328; ar, ابن تيمية), birth name Taqī ad-Dīn ʾAḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Ḥalīm ibn ʿAbd al-Salām al-Numayrī al-Ḥarrānī ( ar, تقي الدين أحمد بن عبد الحليم ...
and
Taqī ad-Dīn as-Subkī (d.1355) in expanding the definition of heresy in apostasy, being the first to called for the death penalty for those Muslims guilty of “disseminating improprieties about Muḥammad or questioning his authority in all questions of faith and profane life” (according to Tilman Nagel).
[Nagel, Tilman. 2001. Das islamische Recht. Eine Einführung. Westhofen: WVA Skulima, p.295; quoted in ]
He headed a revolt against the coming of the
Almohades to
Ceuta, but lost and was banished to
Tadla and later
Marrakech
Marrakesh or Marrakech ( or ; ar, مراكش, murrākuš, ; ber, ⵎⵕⵕⴰⴽⵛ, translit=mṛṛakc}) is the fourth largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. It is one of the four Imperial cities of Morocco and is the capital of the Marrakes ...
. He was a pupil of Abu Abdillah ibn Isa, Abu Abdillah ibn Hamdin and Abu al-Hassan ibn Siraj, and was a teacher of
Averroes and
Ibn Maḍāʾ.
He died in 1149. He refused to acknowledge
Ibn Tumart as the awaited
Mahdi. Sources disagree on how and where he died. Some sources, including one written by his son, Muhammad, describe how he ingratiated himself with the Almohads in Marakech and eventually died of sickness during a military campaign. Other sources describe how he died a natural death while acting as a rural judge near Tadla, while later sources tend to assume a violent death at the hands of the Almohads. Although he was opposed to the Almohads and the ideas of Ibn Hazm, he did not hold enmity for the
Zahirite school of Sunni Islam, which the Almohads and Ibn Hazm followed. Ayyad's comments on Ibn Hazm's teacher Abu al-Khiyar al-Zahiri were positive, as was Ayyad's characterization of his own father, a Zahirite theologian.
Cadi Ayyad University, also known as the University of Marrakech, was named after him. Qadi Ayyad is also well known as one of the
seven saints of Marrakech and is buried near Bab Aïlen.
Works
He was one of the most famous scholars of
Maliki law and author of the well-known
Ash-Shifa on the virtues of the prophet and ''Tartib al-mardarik wa-taqrib al-masalik li-marifat alam madhab Malik'', a collection of biographies of eminent Malikis, a.o.
Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi.
[ The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition. ]Brill Publishers
Brill Academic Publishers (known as E. J. Brill, Koninklijke Brill, Brill ()) is a Dutch international academic publisher founded in 1683 in Leiden, Netherlands. With offices in Leiden, Boston, Paderborn and Singapore, Brill today publishes 27 ...
, Leiden. Bd. 4, S. 289 Qadi `Iyad's other well-known works include:
*''Ikmal al-mu`lim bi fawa'id Muslim'', a famous commentary on
Sahih Muslim which transmitted and expanded upon al-Maziri's own commentary, al-Mu`lim bi-fawa'id Muslim. Qadi `Iyad's own commentary was utilised and expounded upon heavily by
Al-Nawawi in his own commentary of Sahih Muslim.
*''Bughya al-ra'i lima Tadmanahu Hadith Umm Zara` min al-Fawa'id'', published with Tafsir nafs al-Hadith by
Al-Suyuti
Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti ( ar, جلال الدين السيوطي, Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī) ( 1445–1505 CE),; (Brill 2nd) or Al-Suyuti, was an Arab Egyptian polymath, Islamic scholar, historian, Sufi, and jurist. From a family of Persian or ...
.
*''al-I`lam bi Hudud Qawa'id al-Islam'', written on the five pillars of Islam.
*''al-Ilma` ila Ma`rifa Usul al-Riwaya wa Taqyid al-Sama`'', a detailed work on the science of
Hadith.
*''Mashariq al-Anwar `ala Sahih al-Athar'', based on
al-Muwatta of Malik ibn Anas,
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 ...
of
Imam Bukhari and Sahih Muslim by
Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj
Abū al-Ḥusayn ‘Asākir ad-Dīn Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj ibn Muslim ibn Ward ibn Kawshādh al-Qushayrī an-Naysābūrī ( ar, أبو الحسين عساكر الدين مسلم بن الحجاج بن مسلم بن وَرْد بن كوشاذ ...
.
*''al-Tanbihat al-Mustanbata `ala al-kutub al-Mudawwana wa al-Mukhtalata''.
*''Daqa`iq al-akhbar fi dhikr al-janna wa-l-nar'', a "eschatological manual" describing the joys of ''
jannah'' (heaven) and the horrors of ''
jahannam'' (hell)
References
Bibliography
* ''Dictionnaire historique de l'islam, de Janine Sourdel et Dominique Sourdel, édition PUF.''
*
Ahmad al Maqqari al Tilimsani, ''Azhar al Riyad fi Akhbar al Qadi 'Ayyad'' (biography and works of Qadi Ayyad), 5 volumes
* "Qadi Iyad's Rebellion against the Almohads in Sabtah (A. H. 542–543/A. D. 1147–1148) New Numismatic Evidence", by Hanna E. Kassis, ''Journal of the American Oriental Society'', Vol. 103, No. 3 (July–Septempber, 1983), pp. 504–514
External links
Islamophile.org, extensive article on his life and work, in French* His grave, the Koubba Cadi Ayyad, near Bab Aylen in Marrakesh
*
{{Maliki scholars
People from Ceuta
1083 births
1149 deaths
Almohad historians
12th-century jurists
12th-century Arabic writers
12th-century Moroccan historians
12th-century Al-Andalus writers