Abd al-Malik ibn Abd al-Aziz ibn Jurayj ( ar, عبد الملك بن عبد العزيز بن جريج , translit=ʿAbd al-Malik ibn ʿAbd al-Azīz ibn Jurayj, 80 AH/699 CE - 150 AH/767 CE) was an eighth-century ''

faqīh A faqīh (plural ''fuqahā'', ar, فقيه, pl. ‏‎) is an Islamic jurist, an expert in ''fiqh'', or Islamic jurisprudence and Islamic Law. Definition Islamic jurisprudence or ''fiqh'' is the human understanding of the Sharia ( ...

'', exegete and

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 ...

transmitter from the

Taba' at-Tabi'in The Tābiʿū al-Tābʿīn ( ar, تَابِعُو ٱلتَّابِعِينَ, singular ar, تَابِعُ ٱلتَّابِعِينَ) is the generation after the Tābi‘ūn in Islam. The first generation of Muslims are known as the Sahaba ...

Biography

Ibn Jurayj was born in

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

in 70 AH/699 CE. His father Abd al-Aziz was reportedly a ''

'', while his grandfather Jurayj was of

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

origin; Jurayj is an Arabic rendition of the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

name Grēgórios. He was raised as a ''

mawla Mawlā ( ar, مَوْلَى, plural ''mawālī'' ()), is a polysemous Arabic word, whose meaning varied in different periods and contexts.A.J. Wensinck, Encyclopedia of Islam 2nd ed, Brill. "Mawlā", vol. 6, p. 874. Before the Islamic prophet ...

'' (client) of the Al-Khalid ibn Asid clan of

Banu Umayya Umayyad dynasty ( ar, بَنُو أُمَيَّةَ, Banū Umayya, Sons of Umayya) or Umayyads ( ar, الأمويون, al-Umawiyyūn) were the ruling family of the Caliphate between 661 and 750 and later of Al-Andalus between 756 and 1031. In the ...

, who had enslaved his grandfather. At the age of 15, he was accepted to the study circle of Meccan jurist

Ata ibn Abi Rabah Ata ibn Abi Rabah ( ar, عطاء بن أبي رباح, translit=ʿAṭāʾ ibn Abī Rabāḥ) was a prominent early Muslim jurist and hadith transmitter who served as the ''mufti'' of Mecca in the seventh and eighth centuries. Early life Ata w ...

after previously being rejected for lacking knowledge on

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical 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 in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

recitation and Islamic inheritance laws. After remaining with Ata for around 18 years, he left to study under

Amr ibn Dinar Amr ibn Dinar (, ) was a seventh-century Muslim jurist and hadith transmitter from the ''tabi'un'' who served as the mufti of Mecca. Biography Amr ibn Dinar's exact date of birth is unknown, but Islamic biographical dictionaries estimate it to ...

until 120 AH/738 CE. During this period, he also attended the lectures of

Mujahid ibn Jabr Abū l-Ḥajjāj Mujāhid ibn Jabr al-Qāriʾ ( ar, مُجَاهِدُ بْنُ جَبْرٍ) (642–722 CE) was a Tabi‘ and one of the major early Islamic scholars. His tafsīr of the Qur'an (exegesis/commentary) is believed to be the earlie ...

, Ibn Abi Mulayka and

Nafi Mawla Ibn Umar Nafi bin Sarjis Abu Abdullah ad-Dailami ( ar, نافع بن سارجيس أبو عبد الله الديلمي), also known as Nafi` Mawla ibn `Umar ( ar, نافع مولى بن عمر), was a scholar of Fiqh jurisprudence and muhaddith from the T ...

. He eventually took on students of his own, most notably the historian

Al-Waqidi Abu `Abdullah Muhammad Ibn ‘Omar Ibn Waqid al-Aslami (Arabic ) (c. 130 – 207 AH; c. 747 – 823 AD) was a historian commonly referred to as al-Waqidi (Arabic: ). His surname is derived from his grandfather's name Waqid and thus he became fa ...

and jurist

Sufyan ibn ʽUyaynah Abū Muḥammad Sufyān ibn ʽUyaynah ibn Maymūn al-Hilālī al-Kūfī ( ar, ابو محمد سفيان بن عيينة بن ميمون الهلالي الكوفي) (725 – ) was a prominent eighth-century Islamic religious scholar from Mecca. ...

. Marrying a woman known in biographical sources for her piety, Ibn Jurayj had a son, Abd al-Aziz, and a grandson, al-Walid, taking on the ''kunya'' Abu al-Walid. Although he rarely travelled outside the

Hejaz The Hejaz (, also ; ar, ٱلْحِجَاز, al-Ḥijāz, lit=the Barrier, ) is a region in the west of Saudi Arabia. It includes the cities of Mecca, Medina, Jeddah, Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, and Baljurashi. It is also known as the "Western Provin ...

, Ibn Jurayj visited

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 ...

and

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

towards the end of his life, staying in

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 ...

and

Sanaa Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...

. He died on 11 Dhu al-Hijjah 150 AH/768 CE.

Views

Ibn Jurayj believed in the permissibility of

nikah mut'ah ''Nikah mut'ah'' ar, نكاح المتعة, nikāḥ al-mutʿah, literally "pleasure marriage"; temporary marriage or Sigheh ( fa, صیغه ، ازدواج موقت) is a private and verbal temporary marriage contract that is practiced in Tw ...

. The number of mut'ah marriages he contracted is given variously as 60 by Jarir ibn Abdullah al-Dabbi, 70 by

Al-Shafi‘i Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī ( ar, أَبُو عَبْدِ ٱللهِ مُحَمَّدُ بْنُ إِدْرِيسَ ٱلشَّافِعِيُّ, 767–19 January 820 CE) was an Arab Muslim theologian, writer, and schola ...

and 90 by

Al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Islamic historia ...

, although narrations present in later sources describe Ibn Jurayj retracting this opinion. Harald Motzki suggests his view on mut'ah accorded with a Meccan school tradition that was originated by

Ibn Abbas ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbbās ( ar, عَبْد ٱللَّٰه ٱبْن عَبَّاس; c. 619 – 687 CE), also known as Ibn ʿAbbās, was one of the cousins of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. He is considered to be the greatest mufassir of the Qur'a ...

and developed by his student Ata ibn Abi Rabah, and thus did not stem from the

Sunni 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 disagr ...

Shi'ite Shīʿa Islam or Shīʿīsm is the second-largest branch of Islam. It holds that the Islamic prophet Muhammad designated ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib as his successor (''khalīfa'') and the Imam (spiritual and political leader) after him, most ...

dispute on the matter.

Legacy

Works

Ibn Jurayj's collection of traditions, reportedly titled ''Kitab al-Sunan'', is credited with pioneering the standard structure of

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 ...

works and beginning the ''

musannaf Musannaf hadīth collections are defined by their arrangement of content according to topic and constitute a major category within the class of all such works. Etymologically, ''musannaf'' is the passive particle of the Arabic verb ''sannafa'', ...

'' genre. His student Abd al-Razzaq ibn Hammam claimed he was the first to arrange traditions in subject order, dividing them into chapters named 'books'.

Ibn al-Nadim Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Nadīm ( ar, ابو الفرج محمد بن إسحاق النديم), also ibn Abī Ya'qūb Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq al-Warrāq, and commonly known by the ''nasab'' (patronymic) Ibn al-Nadīm ...

, who was familiar with the work, stated it was similar in form to later works of ''sunan'' - containing, for example, a chapter (''kitāb'') on salah followed by a chapter on

zakat Zakat ( ar, زكاة; , "that which purifies", also Zakat al-mal , "zakat on wealth", or Zakah) is a form of almsgiving, often collected by the Muslim Ummah. It is considered in Islam as a religious obligation, and by Quranic ranking, is ...

. He also reportedly authored books on

tafsir Tafsir ( ar, تفسير, tafsīr ) refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' ( ar, مُفسّر; plural: ar, مفسّرون, mufassirūn). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, in ...

and '' manasik'', referred to in later sources as ''Kitāb al-Tafsir and Kitāb al-Manāsik'' respectively. However, according to

Ahmad ibn Hanbal Ahmad ibn Hanbal al-Dhuhli ( ar, أَحْمَد بْن حَنْبَل الذهلي, translit=Aḥmad ibn Ḥanbal al-Dhuhlī; November 780 – 2 August 855 CE/164–241 AH), was a Muslim jurist, theologian, ascetic, hadith traditionist, and ...

, the work on tafsir in fact consisted of his students' recordings of the lectures he gave on the subject. In 2020, his tafsir was published for the first time after a manuscript of the work was discovered. It contained commentary on surahs

An-Nisa An-Nisa' ( ar, ٱلنِّسَاء, ; The Women) is the fourth chapter (sūrah) of the Quran, with 176 verses ( āyāt). The title derives from the numerous references to women throughout the chapter, including verse 34 and verses 127-130.Hale ...

Al-Waqi'a Al-Waqi'a ( ar, الواقعة; "The Inevitable" or "The Event") is the 56th surah (chapter) of the Quran. Muslims believe it was revealed in Mecca (see Meccan surah), specifically around 7 years before the Hijrah (622), the migration of Muh ...

Hadith

Hadith transmitted by Ibn Jurayj are present in all six of the canonical Sunni hadith collections. During his stay in Yemen, Ibn Jurayj's lectures were attended by

ʽAbd al-Razzaq al-Sanʽani Abd al-Razzaq ibn Hammam ibn Nafi al-Sanani (, 744-827 CE, 126–211 AH), was an eighth-century Yemeni hadith scholar purportedly of Persian people, Persian descent who compiled a hadith collection known as the Musannaf of Abd al-Razzaq, ''Musanna ...

, who included 5,000 of the traditions taught in his ''

''. Ibn Jurayj's status as a hadith transmitter was viewed positively by his student Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattani, although he cast doubt on those traditions which had been transmitted from memory and where an informant had been concealed (''tadlis''). The evaluation of Ibn Jurayj being a trustworthy transmitter when not practicing ''tadlis'' was also shared by later hadith critics, including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Maʻin and

Ali ibn al-Madini Abū al-Ḥasan ʻAlī ibn ʻAbdillāh ibn Jaʻfar al-Madīnī (778 CE/161 AH – 849/234) ( ar, أبو الحسن علي بن عبد الله بن جعفر المديني) was a ninth-century Sunni Islamic scholar who was influential in the sci ...

. More recently, Motzki assessed Ibn Jurayj's material in ʽAbd al-Razzaq al-Sanʽani's ''musannaf'', concluding he did not forge the traditions he transmitted.

References