Muhyi al-Din (or Mujir al-Din) Abu Ali Abd al-Rahim ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Lakhmi al-Baysani al-Asqalani, better known by the honorific name al-Qadi al-Fadil (; 3 April 1135 – 26 January 1200) was an official who served the last
Fatimid
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimid dynasty, Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa ...
caliph
A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
s, and became the secretary and chief counsellor of the first
Ayyubid
The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultan of Egypt, Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate, Fatimid Caliphate of Egyp ...
sultan
Sultan (; ', ) is a position with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", derived from the verbal noun ', meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be use ...
,
Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...
.
Born in
Ascalon
Ascalon or Ashkelon was an ancient Near East port city on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant of high historical and archaeological significance. Its remains are located in the archaeological site of Tel Ashkelon, within the city limi ...
to a and financial official, Qadi al-Fadil went to study in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
, the Fatimid capital. He entered the Fatimid
chancery
Chancery may refer to:
Offices and administration
* Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873
** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery
** Courts of e ...
, and quickly distinguished himself for the elegance of his prose style. In the early 1160s, he was patronized by the
viziers
A vizier (; ; ) 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 at first merely a helper but afterwards became the rep ...
Ruzzik ibn Tala'i
Abū Shujāʿ Ruzzīk ibn Ṭalāʾiʿ was the son of the Twelver Shi'a Armenian vizier of the Fatimid Caliphate, Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, and succeeded his father when the latter was assassinated in September 1161. He was himself overthrown by the Bedo ...
and
Shawar
Shawar ibn Mujir al-Sa'di (; died 18 January 1169) was the ''de facto'' ruler of Fatimid Egypt, as its vizier, from December 1162 until his assassination in 1169 by the general Shirkuh, the uncle of the future Ayyubid leader Saladin, with w ...
, rising to become head of the fiscal department supervising the army, and receiving the name by which he is known. Despite his prominent position in the Fatimid state, he quickly sided with the fellow
Sunni
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
Saladin during the latter's vizierate, and supported him in deposing the
Fatimid dynasty
The Fatimid dynasty () was an Arab dynasty that ruled the Fatimid Caliphate, between 909 and 1171 CE. Descended from Fatima and Ali, and adhering to Isma'ili Shi'ism, they held the Isma'ili imamate, and were regarded as the rightful leaders o ...
, which was achieved in 1171.
In the new Ayyubid regime, Qadi al-Fadil was an important figure, serving as Saladin's chief counsellor. He was left in charge of the Egyptian administration during Saladin's wars in the
Levant
The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
. As a result, historians often attribute to him the title of vizier, which he never held. After Saladin's death in 1193, Qadi al-Fadil served Saladin's son
al-Afdal, ruler of
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
, before switching his allegiance to Saladin's second son,
al-Aziz
Abu Mansur Nizar (; 10 May 955 – 14 October 996), known by his regnal name as al-Aziz Billah (), was the fifth caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, from 975 to his death in 996. His reign saw the capture of Damascus and the Fatimid expansion into ...
, ruler of Egypt. He retired after 1195, and died in 1200.
Qadi al-Fadil's reputation among contemporaries and later generations rests chiefly on his skill as an
epistolary writer. His style was much admired and widely emulated by later generations. The corpus of his letters is also an important historical source for the period. In addition, he founded a
madrasah
Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning ...
in Cairo, and donated his large library to the institution.
Life
Service under the Fatimids

Qadi al-Fadil was born on 2 April 1135 at
Ascalon
Ascalon or Ashkelon was an ancient Near East port city on the Mediterranean coast of the southern Levant of high historical and archaeological significance. Its remains are located in the archaeological site of Tel Ashkelon, within the city limi ...
. His father, known as al-Qadi al-Ashraf (d. 1149/50), was serving as judge () and financial comptroller () there. The exact significance of the
epithet
An epithet (, ), also a byname, is a descriptive term (word or phrase) commonly accompanying or occurring in place of the name of a real or fictitious person, place, or thing. It is usually literally descriptive, as in Alfred the Great, Suleima ...
'al-Baysani' is unclear: one version holds that the family hailed from
Baysan
Beit She'an ( '), also known as Beisan ( '), or Beth-shean, is a town in the Northern District (Israel), Northern District of Israel. The town lies at the Beit She'an Valley about 120 m (394 feet) below sea level.
Beit She'an is believed to ...
, while another that it hailed from Ascalon, but that Qadi al-Ashraf had previously served as at Baysan.
Qadi al-Fadil received his basic education at his home town, before moving to
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
in , where, at the initiative of his father, he entered the
chancery
Chancery may refer to:
Offices and administration
* Court of Chancery, the chief court of equity in England and Wales until 1873
** Equity (law), also called chancery, the body of jurisprudence originating in the Court of Chancery
** Courts of e ...
() of the
Fatimid Caliphate
The Fatimid Caliphate (; ), also known as the Fatimid Empire, was a caliphate extant from the tenth to the twelfth centuries CE under the rule of the Fatimids, an Isma'ili Shi'a dynasty. Spanning a large area of North Africa and West Asia, i ...
as a trainee. The long-serving head of the chancery,
Ibn Khallal, became his patron during his subsequent career. This training included administrative practice and especially the arts of epistolary and secretarial writing. Despite his own title of , however, it is unclear whether Qadi al-Fadil also received judicial education at any point. The title was common for officials in the Fatimid administration as a honorific, and under the
Isma'ili
Ismailism () is a branch of Shia Islam. The Isma'ili () get their name from their acceptance of Imam Isma'il ibn Jafar as the appointed spiritual successor (Imamate in Nizari doctrine, imām) to Ja'far al-Sadiq, wherein they differ from the ...
Shi'a
Shia Islam is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that Muhammad designated Ali ibn Abi Talib () as both his political successor ( caliph) and as the spiritual leader of the Muslim community ( imam). However, his right is understoo ...
Fatimid regime, there were no
Sunni
Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Mu ...
schools in Cairo where he, as a Sunni, might have acquired the necessary training.
According to the 13th-century encyclopaedist
Yaqut al-Hamawi
Yāqūt Shihāb al-Dīn ibn-ʿAbdullāh al-Rūmī al-Ḥamawī (1179–1229) () was a Muslim scholar of Byzantine ancestry active during the late Abbasid period (12th–13th centuries). He is known for his , an influential work on geography con ...
, at this time Qadi al-Fadil's father fell into disgrace because he failed to inform Cairo of the release of an important hostage by the governor of Ascalon. His property was confiscated, and he died, destitute, soon after. According to this account, Qadi al-Fadil had to interrupt his apprenticeship and go on foot to
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
, where by 1153 he had become secretary to the of
Alexandria
Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...
, Ibn Hadid. His small salary of three
gold dinar
The gold dinar () is an Islamic medieval gold coin first issued in AH 77 (696–697 CE) by Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The weight of the dinar is 1 mithqal ().
The word ''dinar'' comes from the Latin word denarius, which was ...
s per month did not suffice to care for his mother, brother and sister back in Ascalon, but following the
fall of Ascalon to the
Crusaders
The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding ...
in the same year, the rest of his family moved to Egypt. Alexandria was the seat of a
Maliki
The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...
law school, but it is again unknown if he attended it. The only available information comes from the later writer
al-Mundhiri, who reports that during his stay in Alexandria, Qadi al-Fadil studied under the two eminent
jurists
A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyzes and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal education in law (a law degree) and often a legal practition ...
Abu Tahir al-Silafi
Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī (; born Isfahan in 472 AH/1079 CE, died Alexandria in 576/1180), was one of the leading scholars of hadith in the twelfth-century. He was an esteemed Shafi'i hadith scholar from Isfahan who taught for many years at the 'A ...
and
Ibn Awf. In this post he distinguished himself due to the artful language of his dispatches, and was called to Cairo by the
vizier
A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...
Ruzzik ibn Tala'i
Abū Shujāʿ Ruzzīk ibn Ṭalāʾiʿ was the son of the Twelver Shi'a Armenian vizier of the Fatimid Caliphate, Tala'i ibn Ruzzik, and succeeded his father when the latter was assassinated in September 1161. He was himself overthrown by the Bedo ...
(vizierate: 1161–1163) and appointed head of the army bureau ().
When Ruzzik was deposed by
Shawar
Shawar ibn Mujir al-Sa'di (; died 18 January 1169) was the ''de facto'' ruler of Fatimid Egypt, as its vizier, from December 1162 until his assassination in 1169 by the general Shirkuh, the uncle of the future Ayyubid leader Saladin, with w ...
, Qadi al-Fadil became the secretary to Shawar's son, Kamil. During Shawar's conflicts with
Dirgham
Abu'l-Ashbāl al-Ḍirghām ibn ʿĀmir ibn Sawwār al-Lukhamī () () was an Arab military commander in the service of the Fatimid Caliphate. An excellent warrior and model cavalier, he rose to higher command and scored some successes against the ...
, he sided with the former, and was even imprisoned for a time along with Kamil in August 1163, when Dirgham seized power. After the final victory of Shawar in May 1164, Qadi al-Fadil was released and given many honours, including the epithet of (), by which he is known.
Switch of allegiance and the fall of the Fatimid Caliphate
As a partisan of Shawar, Qadi al-Fadil had originally opposed
Shirkuh
Asad ad-Dīn Shīrkūh bin Shādhī (; ), (died 23 March 1169) was a Kurdish Mercenary commander in service of the Zengid dynasty, then the Fatimid Caliphate and uncle of Saladin. His military and diplomatic efforts in Egypt were a key factor ...
, the
Türk general who had invaded Egypt on behalf of his Syrian King,
Nur al-Din Nur al-Din () is a male Arabic given name, translating to "light of Faith", ''nūr'' meaning "light" and ''dīn'' meaning "religion". More recently, the name has also been used as a surname.
There are many Romanized spelling variants of the name. T ...
. Qadi al-Fadil's support extended to supporting Shawar's decision to
turn to the Crusaders for aid against the Syrian troops. Nevertheless, within a short time, he managed to gain the friendship of Shirkuh and remained in service in the chancery under both him and his nephew and successor,
Saladin
Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub ( – 4 March 1193), commonly known as Saladin, was the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. Hailing from a Kurdish family, he was the first sultan of both Egypt and Syria. An important figure of the Third Crusade, h ...
. The sources give different accounts of the background of these events. Modern historians generally consider the truthfulness of these reports doubtful, as they are at pains to exculpate Qadi al-Fadil for his sudden change of allegiance from the Fatimids to the
Ayyubids
The Ayyubid dynasty (), also known as the Ayyubid Sultanate, was the founding dynasty of the medieval Sultanate of Egypt established by Saladin in 1171, following his abolition of the Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. A Sunni Muslim of Kurdish ori ...
.
This change is not difficult to understand. Although a high official of the Fatimid state, Qadi al-Fadil was likely a devoted Sunni, as were most of the civilian bureaucracy at the time. His loyalty to the Fatimid dynasty and the Isma'ili sect was therefore dubious at best, and it was not difficult for him to transfer his allegiance to the Sunni Ayyubids. The Fatimid regime itself was already in decline, challenged by over-mighty viziers who had reduced the
caliph
A caliphate ( ) is an institution or public office under the leadership of an Islamic steward with Khalifa, the title of caliph (; , ), a person considered a political–religious successor to the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a leader of ...
s to puppets. The official sect of Isma'ilism had lost its appeal and was weakened by disputes and schisms, and the dynasty's legitimacy was increasingly challenged by a Sunni resurgence that was partly sponsored by the Fatimids' own viziers.
In 1167/8, Qadi al-Fadil became the new head of the chancery, replacing his old patron Ibn Khallal. When the latter died on 4 March 1171, he became the secretary to Saladin. From 1170 on, Saladin gradually moved to dismantle the Fatimid regime and replace Isma'ilism with Sunni Islam. The 14th-century Egyptian historian
al-Maqrizi
Al-Maqrīzī (, full name Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī, ; 1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian historian and biographer during the Mamluk era, known for his interest in the Fat ...
ascribes to Saladin and Qadi al-Fadil jointly the common cause of deposing the Fatimid dynasty, and Saladin himself is said to have remarked "I took Egypt not by force of arms but by the pen of Qadi al-Fadil".
When Saladin deposed the Fatimid regime outright following the death of caliph
al-Adid
Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yūsuf ibn al-Ḥāfiẓ (; 1151–1171), better known by his regnal name al-ʿĀḍid li-Dīn Allāh (), was the fourteenth and last caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, and the twenty-fourth imam of the Hafizi Is ...
in September 1171, Qadi al-Fadil played a leading role in carrying out the subsequent changes in the military and fiscal administration of Egypt. Qadi al-Fadil's role in the suppression of a
supposed pro-Fatimid conspiracy in April 1174 is unclear. The aftermath included the execution of a number of former Fatimid officials, most notably the poet
Umara al-Yamani
Najm al-Dīn Umāra al-Ḥakamī al-Yamanī () was a Sunni historian, jurist and poet of Yemen of great repute who was closely associated with the late Fatimid Caliphate of Egypt. He was executed by order of Saladin at Cairo on April 6, 1174 for hi ...
. Qadi al-Fadil's account of the extent of the conspiracy is at odds with the limited reprisals, and the affair was likely a settling of old rivalries within the former Fatimid administrative elites.
Service under Saladin
Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, a friend and collaborator who entered Saladin's service through Qadi al-Din's intercession, writes of him that he was the "principal driving force behind the affairs of Saladin's regime", but his exact duties are unclear. Although often called Saladin's
vizier
A vizier (; ; ) is a high-ranking political advisor or Minister (government), minister in the Near East. The Abbasids, Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was at first merely a help ...
, Qadi al-Fadil never held that title. He was nevertheless the closest counsellor and chief secretary of the Ayyubid ruler until Saladin's death. He accompanied Saladin in his campaigns in Syria, but in the sources, he is chiefly associated with Egypt, where most of his career took place. Thus in 1188/89 Saladin renewed Qadi al-Fadil's brief to supervise all affairs of Egypt, while in 1190/91 he was tasked with equipping a fleet to assist Saladin in his
Siege of Acre.
At the same time, during Saladin's absence in the wars against the Crusaders, the government of Egypt was formally left to other members of the Ayyubid clan. Qadi al-Fadil was critical of Saladin's brother,
al-Adil
Al-Adil I (, in full al-Malik al-Adil Sayf ad-Din Abu-Bakr Ahmed ibn Najm ad-Din Ayyub, , "Ahmed, son of Najm ad-Din Ayyub, father of Bakr, the Just King, Sword of the Faith"; 1145 – 31 August 1218) was the fourth Sultan of Egypt, Sultan o ...
. After he left Egypt, Qadi al-Fadil successfully lobbied for al-Adil's replacement by his friend, Saladin's nephew
Taqi al-Din. For unknown reasons, Qadi al-Fadil was not present at Saladin's greatest victory at the
Battle of Hattin
The Battle of Hattin took place on 4 July 1187, between the Crusader states of the Levant and the forces of the Ayyubid sultan Saladin. It is also known as the Battle of the Horns of Hattin, due to the shape of the nearby extinct volcano of ...
(1187), nor in the subsequent recapture of
Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...
.
In Christian sources, Qadi al-Fadil is blamed for the anti- purge of the early years of Saladin's rule, which saw Christians evicted and banned from holding posts in the public fiscal administration. At the same time, however, Qadi al-Fadl sponsored a number of Jewish physicians, among them the celebrated philosopher
Maimonides
Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...
, whom he defended from charges of
apostasy
Apostasy (; ) is the formal religious disaffiliation, disaffiliation from, abandonment of, or renunciation of a religion by a person. It can also be defined within the broader context of embracing an opinion that is contrary to one's previous re ...
, and who dedicated his book ''On Poisons and Antidotes'' to his patron.
From his prominent post, Qadi al-Fadil became a wealthy man: he reportedly received an annual salary of 50,000 gold dinars, and became a successful merchant, trading with India and North Africa. Outside the
city walls
A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications such as curtain walls with to ...
of Cairo, a change of the course of the Nile had exposed large tracts of land that were exceedingly fertile. Qadi al-Fadil bought much of it, and converted these estates into an orchard that supplied the capital with fruit.
Final years and death
After Saladin's death at
Damascus
Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...
in March 1193, Qadi al-Fadil initially served his oldest son
al-Afdal, ruler of Damascus. Due to al-Afdal's erratic leadership, he quickly returned to Egypt, where he entered the service of
al-Aziz
Abu Mansur Nizar (; 10 May 955 – 14 October 996), known by his regnal name as al-Aziz Billah (), was the fifth caliph of the Fatimid dynasty, from 975 to his death in 996. His reign saw the capture of Damascus and the Fatimid expansion into ...
, Saladin's second son, who had seized power there. When the two brothers came into conflict, Qadi al-Fadil managed to mediate a peace between them in 1195. After this he retired, and died on 26 January 1200. He was buried in the
Qarafa cemetery in Cairo. A mausoleum was erected on top of his grave.
Qadi al-Fadil's surviving family is mostly obscure. From his many sons, only
al-Qadi al-Ashraf Ahmad Abu'l-Abbas is notable, who served the Ayyubid rulers of Egypt until his death in 1245/46.
Writings and patronage of learning
Already during his lifetime, Qadi al-Fadil was highly esteemed, chiefly due to the "exceptional quality of his private and official epistolary style", which was praised, held up as a model, and emulated by subsequent generations of writers. This style was similar to that of Imad al-Din al-Isfahani, and "combines richness (perhaps a little less prolix) and suppleness of form with a realistic treatment of the facts, a lesson too often forgotten by later writers, which makes his correspondence a valuable historical source". Al-Isfahani himself praises his contemporary as the "lord of word and pen", and writes that just as the
Sharia
Sharia, Sharī'ah, Shari'a, or Shariah () is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition based on Islamic holy books, scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran, Qur'an and hadith. In Islamic terminology ''sharīʿah'' ...
invalidated all previous laws, so Qadi al-Fadil's style overrode all previous traditions in epistle literature (). As a result, many of his chancery epistles were included in the works of other authors, from chroniclers such as al-Isfahani and
Abu Shama
Abū Shāma Shihāb al-Dīn al-Maḳdisī (10 January 1203 – 13 June 1267) was an Arab historian.
Abū Shāma was born in Damascus, where he passed his whole life save for one year in Egypt, a fortnight in Jerusalem
Jerusalem is a city ...
to compilers of literature, most notably
al-Qalqashandi
Shihāb al-Dīn Abū 'l-Abbās Aḥmad ibn ‘Alī ibn Aḥmad ‘Abd Allāh al-Fazārī al-Shāfiʿī better known by the epithet al-Qalqashandī (; 1355 or 1356 – 1418), was a medieval Arab Egyptian encyclopedist, polymath and mathemati ...
. Others survive as manuscripts to this day, and the work of editing and publishing them is still ongoing. However, they still represent only a part of the reportedly 100 volumes of official and private correspondence attributed to him.
As head of the chancery, Qadi al-Fadil also kept an official diary (known as or ). It has not survived, apart from several extracts from it that have been included in later histories, notably al-Maqrizi, and is an invaluable source on Saladin's rule in Egypt. According to the 13th-century historian
Ibn al-Adim
Kamāl al-Dīn Abū ʾl-Ḳāsim ʿUmar ibn Aḥmad ibn Hibat Allāh Ibn al-ʿAdīm (1192–1262; ) was an Arab biographer and historian from Aleppo. He is best known for his work ''Bughyat al-Talab fī Tārīkh Ḥalab'' (; ''Everything Desirabl ...
, however, this diary was actually kept by a different historian, Abu Ghalib al-Shaybani.
Qadi al-Fadil was also active as a poet. Many of his works are included in his epistles. His
collected poems were published in two volumes in Cairo in 1961 and 1969, edited by Ahmad A. Badawi and Ibrahim al-Ibyari.
A famous bibliophile, Qadi al-Fadil amassed a large library, much of which he donated to the Fadiliyya, a
madrasah
Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning ...
for
Maliki
The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...
and
Shafi'i
The Shafi'i school or Shafi'i Madhhab () or Shafi'i is one of the four major schools of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence), belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It was founded by the Muslim scholar, jurist, and traditionis ...
jurisprudence that he founded in 1184/85 at Cairo. It included a hall for studying the recitation of the
Quran
The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...
, an orphanage, and Qadi al-Fadil's private residence. His son Ahmad served there as a teacher, and a grandson worked there as librarian.
References
Sources
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Further reading
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Qadi Al-Fadil
1135 births
1200 deaths
Officials of the Fatimid Caliphate
People from Ashkelon
People from the Ayyubid Sultanate
Saladin
12th-century people from the Fatimid Caliphate
Sunni Muslims
12th-century Arabic-language poets
Medieval letter writers
12th-century Arabic-language writers
Bibliophiles
Muslims of the Crusades
Egypt under the Ayyubid Sultanate