Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm ( ar, أبو محمد علي بن احمد بن سعيد بن حزم; also sometimes known as al-Andalusī aẓ-Ẓāhirī; 7 November 994 – 15 August 1064Ibn Hazm.

' (Preface). Trans. A. J. Arberry. Luzac Oriental, 1997 Joseph A. Kechichian
A mind of his own

Gulf News ''Gulf News'' is a daily English language newspaper published from Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It was first launched in 1978, and is currently distributed throughout the UAE and also in other Persian Gulf Countries. Its online edition was launch ...

: 21:30 December 20, 2012. ">56 AH was an

Andalusian Andalusia is a region in Spain. Andalusian may also refer to: Animals *Andalusian chicken, a type of chicken *Andalusian donkey, breed of donkey *Andalusian hemipode, a buttonquail, one of a small family of birds *Andalusian horse, a breed of ho ...

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

polymath, historian, muhaddith,

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 ...

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, and theologian, born in the Caliphate of Córdoba, present-day Spain. Described as one of the strictest hadith interpreters, Ibn Hazm was a leading proponent and codifier of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought and produced a reported 400 works, of which only 40 still survive. In all, his written works amounted to some 80 000 pages. Described as one of the fathers of comparative religion, the ''

Encyclopaedia of Islam The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...

'' refers to him as having been one of the leading thinkers of the Muslim world.

Personal life

Lineage

Ibn Hazm's grandfather Sa'id and his father, Ahmad, both held high advisory positions in the court of Umayyad Caliph

Hisham II Hisham II or Abu'l-Walid Hisham II al-Mu'ayyad bi-llah (, Abū'l-Walīd Hishām al-Muʾayyad bi-ʾllāh) (son of Al-Hakam II and Subh of Cordoba) was the third Umayyad Caliph of Spain, in Al-Andalus from 976 to 1009, and 1010–13. Reign In 9 ...

. Scholars believe that they were Iberian Christians who converted to Islam.

Upbringing

Having been raised in a politically and economically important family, Ibn Hazm mingled with people of power and influence all his life. He had access to levels of government by his adolescence that most people then would never know throughout their whole lives. Those experiences with government and politicians caused Ibn Hazm to develop a reluctant and even sad skepticism about human nature and the capacity of human beings to deceive and to oppress.Lois A. Giffen, "Ibn Hazm and the Tawq al-Hamama. Taken from ''The Legacy of Muslim Spain'', p. 428, ed.

Salma Jayyusi Salma Khadra Jayyusi ( ar, سلمى الخضراء الجيوسي; born 1926 or 1927) is a Palestinian poet, writer, translator and anthologist. She is the founder and director of the Project of Translation from Arabic (PROTA), which aims to provi ...

. Leiden:

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 ...

, 1994. His reaction was to believe that there was no refuge or truth except with an infallible God and that with men resided only corruption. He was thus known for his cynicism regarding humanity and a strong respect for the principles of language and sincerity in communication.

Career

Ibn Hazm lived among the circle of the ruling hierarchy of the Caliphate of Córdoba government. His experiences produced an eager and observant attitude, and he gained an excellent education at Córdoba. After the death of the grand vizier, al-Muzaffar, in 1008, the Caliphate of Iberia became embroiled in a civil war that lasted until 1031 and resulted in its collapse of the central authority of Córdoba and the emergence of many smaller incompetent states, the taifas. Majorca and Minorca by Piri Reis

Ibn Hazm's father died in 1012. Ibn Hazm was frequently imprisoned as a suspected supporter of the Umayyads. By 1031, Ibn Hazm retreated to his family estate at Manta Lisham and had begun to express his activist convictions in the literary form. He was a leading proponent and codifier of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought, and he produced a reported 400 works, but only 40 still survive. His political and religious opponents gained power after the collapse of the caliphate and so he accepted an offer of asylum from the governor of the island of

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

in the 1040s. He continued to propagate the Zahiri School there before he returned to Andalusia. Contemporaries coined the saying "the tongue of Ibn Hazm was a twin brother to the sword of al-Hajjaj", an infamous 7th century general and governor of Iraq. Ibn Hazm became so frequently quoted that the phrase "Ibn Hazm said" became proverbial. As an

Athari Atharī theology or Atharism ( ar, الأثرية: / , " archeological"), otherwise referred to as Traditionalist theology or Scripturalist theology, is one of the main Sunni schools of Islamic theology. It emerged as an Islamic scholarly mov ...

, he opposed the allegorical interpretation of religious texts and preferred a

grammatical In linguistics, grammaticality is determined by the conformity to language usage as derived by the grammar of a particular variety (linguistics), speech variety. The notion of grammaticality rose alongside the theory of generative grammar, the go ...

and

syntactical In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure (constituency), ...

interpretation of the Qur'an. He granted cognitive legitimacy only to revelation and sensation, and he considered

deductive reasoning Deductive reasoning is the mental process of drawing deductive inferences. An inference is deductively valid if its conclusion follows logically from its premises, i.e. if it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion to be fals ...

insufficient in legal and religious matters. He rejected practices common among more orthodox schools such as juristic discretion.

Bilal Orfali Bilal Orfali is a Lebanese scholar of Arabic language and literature. He currently serves as Sheikh Zayed Chair of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. He is considered an expert on Arabic prose and poetry, especially d ...

, "In the Shadow of Arabic: The Centrality of Language to Arab Culture." Pg. 34.

, 2011. Print. He was initially a follower of the Maliki school of law within

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagre ...

, but he switched to the Shafi'i school at around the age of thirty. He finally settled with the Zahiri school. He is perhaps the most well-known adherent of the school and the main source of extant works on Zahirite law. He studied the school's precepts and methods under Abu al-Khiyar al-Dawudi al-Zahiri of

Santarém Municipality Santarém may refer to: Places * Santarém, Pará, Brazil * Santarém District, a district in Portugal * Santarém, Portugal, the seat of the above district * Roman Catholic Diocese of Santarém, Portugal Other * Santarém cheese, a Portuguese g ...

and was eventually promoted to the level of a teacher of the school himself. In 1029, both were expelled from the main mosque of Cordoba for their activities.

Works

Much of Ibn Hazm's substantial body of works, which approached that of Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari and

As-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 ...

's, was burned in Seville by his sectarian and political opponents. His surviving works, while criticised as repetitive, didactic and abrasive in style, also show a fearless irreverence towards his academic critics and authorities. Ibn Hazm wrote works on law and theology and over ten medical books. He called for science to be integrated into a standard curriculum. In ''Organization of the Sciences'', he diachronically defines educational fields as stages of progressive acquisition set over a five-year curriculum, from language and exegesis of the Qur'an to the life and physical sciences to a rationalistic theology. Apart from his rational works, Ibn Hazm's The Ring of the Dove (''Tawq al-hamamah)'' is considered a major work of Arabic literature from Al-Andalus.

''Detailed Critical Examination''

In ''Fisal'' (''Detailed Critical Examination''), a treatise on Islamic science and theology, Ibn Hazm promoted sense perception above subjectively flawed human reason. Recognizing the importance of reason, as the Qur'an itself invites reflection, he argued that reflection to refer mainly to revelation and sense data since the principles of reason are themselves derived entirely from

sense experience Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences an ...

. He concludes that reason is not a faculty for independent research or

discovery Discovery may refer to: * Discovery (observation), observing or finding something unknown * Discovery (fiction), a character's learning something unknown * Discovery (law), a process in courts of law relating to evidence Discovery, The Discovery ...

, but that

sense perception Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences an ...

should be used in its place, an idea that forms the basis of

empiricism In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empir ...

Jurisprudence

Perhaps Ibn Hazm's most influential work in the Arabic, selections of which have been translated into English, is now ''The Muhalla'' (المحلى بالأثار), or ''The Adorned Treatise''. It is reported to be a summary of a much longer work, known as ''Al-Mujalla'' (المجلى). Its essential focus is on matters of jurisprudence or fiqh (فقه), but it also touches of matters of creed in its first chapter, ''Kitab al-Tawheed'' (كتاب التوحيد), whose focus is on credal matters related to monotheism and the fundamental principles of approach to divine texts. One of the main points that emerges from the masterpiece of jurisprudencial thought is that Ibn Hazm rejects analogical reasoning (qiyas قياس) but prefers a far more direct and literal approach to the texts.

Logic

Ibn Hazm wrote the ''Scope of Logic'', which stressed on the importance of sense perception as a source of knowledge. Muhammad Iqbal, ''

The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam ''The Reconstruction of Religious Thought in Islam'' is a compilation of lectures delivered by Muhammad Iqbal on Islamic philosophy and published in 1930. These lectures were delivered by Iqbal in Madras, Hyderabad, and Aligarh. The last chap ...

'', "The Spirit of Muslim Culture" ( cf.br>
an

He wrote that the "first sources of all human knowledge are the soundly used senses and the intuitions of reason, combined with a correct understanding of a language". Ibn Hazm also criticized some of the more traditionalist theologians who were opposed to the use of logic and argued that the first generations of Muslims did not rely on logic. His response was that the early Muslims had witnessed the revelation directly, but later Muslims have been exposed to contrasting beliefs and so the use of logic is necessary to preserve the true teachings of

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

.Seyyed Hossein Nasr and Oliver Leaman (1996), ''History of Islamic Philosophy'', pp. 107–109, Routledge, . The work was first republished in Arabic by

Ihsan Abbas Ihsan Abbas (December 2, 1920 – January 29, 2003) was a Palestinian professor at the American University of Beirut, and was considered a premier figure of Arabic and Islamic studies in the East and West during the 20th century. The "author of ...

in 1959 and most recently by

Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri Muhammad bin Umar bin Abd al-Rahman bin Abd Allah al-Aqil, better known as Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri, is a Saudi Arabian polymath. He has, at various times, been referred to as a theologian, jurist, historian, ethnographer, geographer, ...

in 2007.

Ethics

In his book, ''In Pursuit of Virtue'', Ibn Hazm had urged his readers:

Do not use your energy except for a cause more noble than yourself. Such a cause cannot be found except in Almighty God Himself: to preach the truth, to defend womanhood, to repel humiliation which your creator has not imposed upon you, to help the oppressed. Anyone who uses his energy for the sake of the vanities of the world is like someone who exchanges gemstones for gravel.

Poetry

A poem or fragment of a poem by him is preserved in

Ibn Said al-Maghribi Abū al-Ḥasan ʿAlī ibn Mūsā ibn Saʿīd al-Maghribī ( ar, علي بن موسى المغربي بن سعيد) (1213–1286), also known as Ibn Saʿīd al-Andalusī, was an Arab geographer, historian, poet, and the most important collector o ...

's ''Pennants of the Champions'': :::You came to me just before :::the Christians rang their bells. :::The half-moon was rising :::looking like an old man's eyebrow :::or a delicate instep. :::And although it was still night :::when you came a rainbow :::gleamed on the horizon, :::showing as many colours :::as a peacock's tail.

Medicine

Ibn Hazm's teachers in medicine included al-Zahrawi and

Ibn al-Kattani Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Husayn Ibn al-Kattani al-Madhiji () (951–1029), sometimes nicknamed "al-Mutatabbib" (the physician), was a well-known Arab scholar, philosopher, physician, astrologer, man of letters, and poet. Born in Córdoba i ...

, and he wrote ten medical works, including ''Kitab fi'l-Adwiya al-mufrada'' mentioned by al-Dhahabi.

Views

Language

In addition to his views on honesty in communication, Ibn Hazm also addressed the science of language to some degree. He viewed the Arabic language, the Hebrew language and the

Syriac language The Syriac language (; syc, / '), also known as Syriac Aramaic (''Syrian Aramaic'', ''Syro-Aramaic'') and Classical Syriac ܠܫܢܐ ܥܬܝܩܐ (in its literary and liturgical form), is an Aramaic language, Aramaic dialect that emerged during ...

as all essentially being one language which branched out as the speakers settled in different geographic regions and developed different vocabularies and grammars from the common root. Kees Versteegh, ''The Arabic Linguistic Tradition'', pg. 175. Volume three of Landmarks in Linguistic Thought. London: Routledge, 1997. He also differed with many Muslim theologians in that he did not view Arabic as superior to other languages since the Qur'an does not describe Arabic as such. Ibn Hazm viewed that there was no proof for claiming any language was superior to another.

Literalism

Ibn Hazm was well known for his strict literalism and is considered the champion of the literalist Zahirite school within Sunni Islām. A commonly-cited example is his interpretation of the first half of verse 23 in the Qur'anic chapter of Al-Isra prohibiting one from saying "uff" to one's parents. Ibn Hazm said that half of the verse prohibits only saying "uff", not hitting one's parents, for example. However, he considered that hitting them is prohibited by the second half of the verse as well as verse 24 which command kind treatment of parents.

Philosophy

Ibn Hazm's works lightly touched upon the traditions of Greek philosophy. Agreeing with both

Epicurus Epicurus (; grc-gre, Ἐπίκουρος ; 341–270 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced ...

and

Prodicus of Ceos Prodicus of Ceos (; grc-gre, Πρόδικος ὁ Κεῖος, ''Pródikos ho Keios''; c. 465 BC – c. 395 BC) was a Greek philosopher, and part of the first generation of Sophists. He came to Athens as ambassador from Ceos, and became known as ...

, he stated that pleasure brings happiness in life and that there is nothing to fear in death. He believed that these philosophical traditions were useful but not enough to build an individual's character properly, and he stated that the Islamic faith was also necessary. The concept of absolute free will was rejected by Ibn Hazm, as he believed that all of an individual's attributes are created by God.

Shia

Ibn Hazm was highly critical of the Shia. He said about the sect:

The Persians possessed a great kingdom and an upper hand above all other nations. They magnified the danger they posed
o others nations O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
by calling themselves al-Ahrār (the free ones) and al-Asyād (the noble ones). As a result, they considered all other people their slaves. However, they were afflicted with the destruction of their empire at the hands of the Arabs whom they had considered a lesser danger among the other nations
o their empire O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
Their affairs became exacerbated and their afflictions doubled as they plotted wars against Islam various times. However, in all of their plots, Allāh made the Truth manifest. They continued to plot more useful stunts. So, some of their people accepted Islām only to turn towards Shī'ism, with the claim of loving Ahl al-Bayt (the family of the Prophet) and abhorrence to the oppression against 'Alī. Then, they traversed upon this way until it led them away from the path of Guidance slām

Reception

Muslim scholars, especially those subscribing to Zahirism, have often praised Ibn Hazm for what they perceive as his knowledge and perseverance. Yemeni preacher Muqbil bin Hadi al-Wadi'i was one of Ibn Hazm's admirers in recent times, holding the view that no other Muslim scholar had embodied the prophetic tradition of the Muhammad and the Sahaba. On several occasions, al-Wadi'i rejected the validity of

Qiyas In Islamic jurisprudence, qiyas ( ar, قياس , "analogy") is the process of deductive analogy in which the teachings of the hadith are compared and contrasted with those of the Quran, in order to apply a known injunction ('' nass'') to a new ...

while referencing Ibn Hazm's works. As a matter of fact, al-Wadi'i would at times advice his students to be Zahiri when approaching Fiqh altogether. Similarly, Pakistani cleric Badi' ud-Din Shah al-Rashidi taught Ibn Hazm's book Al-Muhalla to students in

Masjid al-Haram , native_name_lang = ar , religious_affiliation = Islam , image = Al-Haram mosque - Flickr - Al Jazeera English.jpg , image_upright = 1.25 , caption = Aerial view of the Great Mosque of Mecca , map ...

, while living in Mecca.Abdullaah Nasir Rehmaani
"A Biography of Shaykh Badee-ud-Deen Shah Rashidee as-Sindhee."
Trns. Abu Naasir and Abu Handhala. Prepared by al-Meezaan.com. al-Wadi'i himself taught Al-Muhalla in

Al-Masjid an-Nabawi Al-Masjid an-Nabawi (), known in English as the Prophet's Mosque, is a mosque built by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the city of Medina in the Al Madinah Province of Saudi Arabia. It was the second mosque built by Muhammad in Medina, after Qub ...

, while in Medina.

, the primary biographer of Ibn Hazm in the modern era, has authored a number of works on Ibn Hazm's life and career, many published through Ibn Aqil's printing press which is named after Ibn Hazm. Modernist revival of Ibn Hazm's general critique of Islamic legal theory has seen several key moments in Arab intellectual history, including

Ahmad Shakir Ahmad Muhammad Shakir ( ar, أحمد محمد شاكر, Aḥmad Muḥammad Shākir) (January 29, 1892, Cairo – June 14, 1958) was an Egyptian Islamic scholar of hadith. He is the son of Muḥammad Shākir ibn Aḥmad, an Islamic scholar of A ...

's re-publishing of Al-Muhalla,

Muhammad Abu Zahra Muhammad Abu Zahra (Arabic: محمد أبو زهرة), (1898–1974) was an Egyptian public intellectual and an influential Hanafi jurist. He occupied a number of positions; he was a lecturer of Islamic law at Al-Azhar University and a professor ...

's biography of Ibn Hazm, and the re-publishing of archived epistles on legal theory by

Sa'id al-Afghani Sa'id al-Afghani was a professor of Arabic language and literature at the University of Damascus. He was regarded as one of the 20th century's leading scholars in both fields.Adil SalahiScholars of renown: Saeed Al-Afghani Arab News: Thursday, April ...

in 1960 and

between 1980 and 1983.

References

Sources

* ''The Ring of the Dove'' by Ibn Hazm, translation and preface by A. J. Arberry * ''al-Fasl fi al-milal wa-al-ahwa' wa-al-nihal'', by Ibn Hazm. Bairut: Dar al-Jil, 1985 * ''Abenházam de Córdoba y su Historia crítica de las ideas religiosas'' vols. 1–5, by Miguel Asín Palacios. Madrid, 1928–1932 * ''Muslim writers on Judaism and the Hebrew Bible : from Ibn Rabban to Ibn Hazm'', by

Camilla Adang Camilla Adang is a Dutch associate professor of Islamic studies at Tel Aviv University in Tel Aviv, Israel. Biography Adang was born in Bussum, Netherlands in 1960.

. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. * ''Ibn Hazm et la polémique islamo-chrétienne dans l´histoire de l´Islam'', by Abdelilah Ljamai. Leiden: Brill, 2003. * ''Ibn Hazam Khilal Alf Aam'', by

. Lebanon: Dar al-Gharab al-Islami, 1982. 303 pages. * ''Kitab al-'axlaq wa-s-siyar ou Risala fi mudawat an-nufus wa-tahdib al-'axlaq wa-z-zuhd fi r-rada'il / Ibn Hazm al-'Andalusi; introd., éd. critique, remarques par

Eva Riad Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in t ...

''. Uppsala : Univ. ; Stockholm : Almqvist & Wiksell international (distr.), 1980. * ''The Zahiris, Their Doctrine and Their History: a contribution to the history of Islamic theology'' by Ignaz Goldziher, trans. and ed. Wolfgang Behn. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971. * "Ibn Hazm of Cordova: on Porphyry's Isagoge", by Rafael Ramón Guerrero, in J. Meirinhos - O. Weijers (eds.): ''Florilegium mediaevale. Études offertes à Jacqueline Hamesse à l'occasion de son éméritat'', Louvain-La-Neuve, FIDEM, 2009, pp. 525–540.

External links

Biodata at MuslimScholars.info

* Global webpos

* Muslim Heritag
Biography
* Britannica.or
Encyclopædia Britannica article on Ibn Hazm

Polemics (Muslim-Jewish)
Camilla Adang, Sabine Schmidtke: ''Andalusi Ibn Ḥazm, who was known for his rather indiscriminate vilification of opponents, even if they were Muslims.'', p. 6, in "Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World", ed. Norman Stillman *
The Position of Ibn Hazm about Asharism by at-tawhid.net
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn Hazm 994 births 1064 deaths

Hazm Hazem (also spelled Hazm or Hazim, ar, حازم) is both a given name and a surname of Arabic origin. Notable people with the name include: Given name *Hazem El Beblawi, Egyptian economist and politician * Hazim Delić, Bosniak Deputy Commander of ...

11th-century Muslim theologians Atharis Critics of Shia Islam Hadith scholars Islamic philosophers Mujaddid People from Córdoba, Spain Scholars from the Umayyad Caliphate of Córdoba Biographical evaluation scholars Muwallads