Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid
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Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ja'far ibn Ibrahim ibn Abi Salama ibn al-Walid al-Abshami al-Qurashi (; 21 December 1215) was the 5th Tayyibi Isma'ili '' Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'' in
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 ...
from 1209 to his death in 1215. Descended from a noble lineage of the
Quraysh The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...
, he was a noted scholar and Tayyibi theologian, and an author of several influential works on Tayyibi doctrine. Before becoming himself ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'', he served as senior deputy to the third and fourth ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq''s. His rise to the office inaugurated a period of two and a half centuries where it would be monopolized, with few exceptions, by members of his own family.


Life


Origin and early career

Ali had a distinguished lineage, being a scion of the
Banu al-Walid al-Anf Banu or BANU may refer to: * Banu (name) * Banu (Arabic), Arabic word for "the sons of" or "children of" * Banu (makeup artist), an Indian makeup artist * Banu Chichek, a character in the ''Book of Dede Korkut'' * Bulgarian Agrarian National Union ...
family of the
Quraysh The Quraysh ( ar, قُرَيْشٌ) were a grouping of Arab clans that historically inhabited and controlled the city of Mecca and its Kaaba. The Islamic prophet Muhammad was born into the Hashim clan of the tribe. Despite this, many of the Qur ...
tribe, ultimately tracing his descent to Abd Manaf ibn Qusayy. He was a descendant of the 7th-century
Umayyad The Umayyad Caliphate (661–750 CE; , ; ar, ٱلْخِلَافَة ٱلْأُمَوِيَّة, al-Khilāfah al-ʾUmawīyah) was the second of the four major caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. The caliphate was ruled by the ...
prince
al-Walid ibn Utba ibn Abi Sufyan Al-Walīd ibn ʿUtba ibn Abī Sufyān () (died 684) was an Umayyad ruling family member and statesman during the reigns of the Umayyad caliphs Mu'awiya I () and Yazid I (). He served two stints as the governor of Medina in 677/78–680 and 681– ...
, while his great-grandfather Ibrahim ibn Abi Salama, known as Ibrahim al-Anf ("Ibrahim the Proud"), had been a follower of
Ali al-Sulayhi Ali bin Muhammad bin Ali al-Sulayhi () was the founder and sultan of the Sulayhid dynasty in Yemen. He established his kingdom in 1047 and by 1063, the Sulayhids controlled had unified the entire country of Yemen as well as the Muslim holy city of ...
, the Isma'ili founder of the
Sulayhid dynasty The Sulayhid dynasty ( ar, بَنُو صُلَيْح, Banū Ṣulayḥ, lit=Children of Sulayh) was an Ismaili Shi'ite Arab dynasty established in 1047 by Ali ibn Muhammad al-Sulayhi that ruled most of historical Yemen at its peak. The Sulayh ...
that came to rule over most of Yemen, and was sent by him as an envoy to the
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 dy ...
caliph al-Mustansir. In his youth he had been a student of his uncle, Ali ibn al-Husayn, who was then '' maʾdhūn'' (senior deputy) to the second '' Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'', Ibrahim ibn al-Husayn. After his uncle's death, he studied under the ''maʾdhūn'' Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Harithi, and upon his death in 1188 succeeded him as ''maʾdhūn'' for the third ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'',
Hatim ibn Ibrahim Hatim ibn Ibrahim al-Hamidi () (died 16 Muharram 596 AH, 6 November 1199 AD), Al-Hutaib, Yemen) was the third Tayyibi Isma'ili '' Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'' (Absolute Missionary). He was of the Banu Hamdan tribe of Yemen and succeeded his father, th ...
. He was stationed in
Sana'a 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 Governo ...
, where he took over the missionary efforts of Muhammad ibn Tahir, but frequently visited the Tayyibi headquarters at Hazar, and Hatim entrusted to Ali the education of his son,
Ali ibn Hatim Ali ibn Hatim al-Hamidi ( ar, علي بن حاتم الحامدي, ʿAlī ibn Ḥātim al-Ḥāmidī) was the fourth Tayyibi Isma'ilism, Tayyibi Isma'ili ''Da'i al-Mutlaq, Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'' in Yemen, from 1199 to his death in 1209. Life He wa ...
. It was on Ali's suggestion that Hatim selected his son as his designated successor. When Hatim died in 1199, his son Ali succeeded him, until his death in 1209. During the reign of Ali ibn Hatim, the Tayyibis were expelled from Hazar and found refuge in Sana'a.


Rule as ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq''

Ali ibn Hatim's death on 31 May 1209 ended the Hamadi line of ''Dāʿī''s without heir, and so Ali succeeded him. He ruled as ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'' until his death, at Sana'a, on 21 December 1215 at the age of 90
years A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hour ...
. The position of ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'' ("absolute/unrestricted missionary") was the supreme authority of the Tayyibi community in their capacity as vicegerents of the absent
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 ...
, the eponymous
at-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim Al-Ṭayyib Abūʾl-Qāsim ibn Al-Manṣūr ( ar, ٱلطَّيِّب أَبُو ٱلْقَاسِم ابْن ٱلْمَنْصُوْر) was, according to the Tayyibi Isma'ili-Musta'li sect of Isma'ilism, the twenty-first Imam and the last Calip ...
, who remained in
occultation An occultation is an event that occurs when one object is hidden from the observer by another object that passes between them. The term is often used in astronomy, but can also refer to any situation in which an object in the foreground blocks ...
. Although his immediate successor, Ali ibn Hanzala, was from the
Banu Hamdan Banu Hamdan ( ar, بَنُو هَمْدَان; Musnad: 𐩠𐩣𐩵𐩬) is an ancient, large, and prominent Arab tribe in northern Yemen. Origins and location The Hamdan stemmed from the eponymous progenitor Awsala (nickname Hamdan) whose desce ...
, in 1230 Ali's son
al-Husayn Abū ʿAbd Allāh al-Ḥusayn ibn ʿAlī ibn Abī Ṭālib ( ar, أبو عبد الله الحسين بن علي بن أبي طالب; 10 January 626 – 10 October 680) was a grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and a son of Ali ibn Abi ...
became the eighth ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'', and with a single interruption, the office would remain in the hands of the Banu al-Walid family continuously until 1539. Like most of his predecessors and successors, Ali enjoyed good relations with the
Hamdanid dynasty The Hamdanid dynasty ( ar, الحمدانيون, al-Ḥamdāniyyūn) was a Twelver Shia Arab dynasty of Northern Mesopotamia and Syria (890–1004). They descended from the ancient Banu Taghlib Christian tribe of Mesopotamia and Eastern Ara ...
ruling Dhu Marmar, as well as the
Ayyubid The Ayyubid dynasty ( ar, الأيوبيون '; ) 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 Egypt. A Sunni ...
rulers of Sana'a. His grave is in Aghmur (Haraz),
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 ...
. His grave was not known for 600 years, until it was discovered in March 2019. The official announcement was made on 25 March 2019 by
Mufaddal Saifuddin Mufaddal Saifuddin () is the spiritual leader and 53rd Da'i al-Mutlaq of one million Dawoodi Bohras, a subgroup of the Tayyibi, Mustaali, Ismaili Shia branch of Islam. He is the second son of the 52nd Da'i al-Mutlaq, Mohammed Burhanuddin, w ...
, the ''Dāʿī al-Muṭlaq'' of the
Dawoodi Bohra The Dawoodi Bohras are a religious denomination within the Ismā'īlī branch of Shia Islam. Their largest numbers reside in India, Pakistan, Yemen, East Africa, and the Middle East, with a growing presence across Europe, North America, South ...
.


Writings

Extremely well-educated, he was held in high regard by both contemporaries and later Tayyibi scholars: Hatim ibn Ibrahim reportedly stated that in Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid were to be found all the qualifications required of a ''dāʿī'' by the 10th-century Isma'ili ''dāʿī'' Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Nisaburi. He was a "prolific author", writing a series of important works on Tayyibi doctrine (''ḥaqāʾiq''). Due to the high regard in which they were held by the Tayyibis, most have survived to the present day. Eight have been published in modern times, while the manuscripts of another eight have not yet been published. The works are: * ''Kitāb al-dhakhīra fī l-ḥaqīqa'', in 33 chapters, dealing with ''
tawḥīd Tawhid ( ar, , ', meaning "unification of God in Islam (Allāh)"; also romanization of Arabic, romanized as ''Tawheed'', ''Tawhid'', ''Tauheed'' or ''Tevhid'') is the indivisible oneness concept of monotheism in Islam. Tawhid is the religion ...
'',
cosmology Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount (lexicographer), Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in ...
and
eschatology Eschatology (; ) concerns expectations of the end of the present age, human history, or of the world itself. The end of the world or end times is predicted by several world religions (both Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic), which teach that negati ...
, the hierarchy of the '' daʿwa'', the imams and prophets, and a discussion on rewards and punishments for the faithful and their opponents. A modern edition was published by Muhammad Hasan al-A'zami, Beirut 1971. * ''Risālat jalāʾ al-ʿuqūl wa-zubdat al-maḥṣūl'', also dealing with ''tawḥīd'', cosmological and eschatological issues; edited by Adil al-Awwa in ''Muntakhabāt Ismāʿīliyya'', Damascus 1958, pp. 80–153. * ''Risālat al-īḍāḥ wa-l-tabyīn'', a short treatise on Tayyibi doctrines on the
Creation Creation may refer to: Religion *''Creatio ex nihilo'', the concept that matter was created by God out of nothing * Creation myth, a religious story of the origin of the world and how people first came to inhabit it * Creationism, the belief tha ...
, Isma'ili hierarchy, eschatology, and on the last Tayyibi imam, at-Tayyib Abu'l-Qasim. It was edited by Rudolf Strothmann and published in his ''Gnosis-Texte der Ismailiten. Arabische Handschrift Ambrosiana H 75'', Göttingen 1943, pp. 138–158. * ''Risālat tuḥfat al-murtād wa-ghuṣṣat al-aḍdād'', a
refutation In argumentation, an objection is a reason arguing against a premise, argument, or conclusion. Definitions of objection vary in whether an objection is always an argument (or counterargument) or may include other moves such as questioning. An ...
of the rival Hafizi Isma'ili claims on the imamate, edited by Rudolf Strothmann in ''Gnosis-Texte der Ismailiten. Arabische Handschrift Ambrosiana H 75'', Göttingen 1943, pp. 159–170. * ''Risāla ī maʿnāal-ism al-aʿẓam'', edited by Rudolf Strothmann and published in his ''Gnosis-Texte der Ismailiten. Arabische Handschrift Ambrosiana H 75'', Göttingen 1943, pp. 171–177. The authorship of this treatise was unknown to Strothmann, and was identified as Ali ibn Muhammad by Ismail Poonawala. * ''Tāj al-ʿaqāʾid wa-maʿdin al-fawāʾid'', edited by Arif Tamir, Beirut, 1st edition 1967 and 2nd edition 1982. A summarized translation was published by
Wladimir Ivanow Wladimir Alekseevich Ivanow (Влади́мир Алексе́евич Ивано́в; November 3, 1886- June 19, 1970) was a Russian orientalist. He was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia and died in Tehran, Iran. He was a scholar of Islam, with ...
, ''A Creed of the Fatimids'', Bombay, Qayyima Press, 1936. * ''Dāmigh al-bāṭil wa-ḥatf al-munāḍil'', a two-volume refutation of
al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111; ), full name (), and known in Persian-speaking countries as Imam Muhammad-i Ghazali (Persian: امام محمد غزالی) or in Medieval Europe by the Latinized as Algazelus or Algazel, was a Persian polymat ...
's anti-Isma'ili work ''Kitab al-Mustazhiri'', edited by Mustafa Ghalib, Beirut 1982. * , a commentary on
Avicenna Ibn Sina ( fa, ابن سینا; 980 – June 1037 CE), commonly known in the West as Avicenna (), was a Persian polymath who is regarded as one of the most significant physicians, astronomers, philosophers, and writers of the Islamic G ...
's ''Qaṣīdat al-nafs'' ("''
qasida The qaṣīda (also spelled ''qaṣīdah''; is originally an Arabic word , plural ''qaṣā’id'', ; that was passed to some other languages such as fa, قصیده or , ''chakameh'', and tr, kaside) is an ancient Arabic word and form of writin ...
''s on the soul"), edited by al-Habib al-Faqi, in ''Ḥawliyyāt al-Jāmiʿa al-Tūnusiyya'', Vol. 17 (1979), pp. 117–182. * ''Dīwān Sayyidnā ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Walīd'', a collection ('' diwan'') of over 100 poems, including
eulogies A eulogy (from , ''eulogia'', Classical Greek, ''eu'' for "well" or "true", ''logia'' for "words" or "text", together for "praise") is a speech or writing in praise of a person or persons, especially one who recently died or retired, or as a ...
of his teachers, as well as dealing with doctrinal matters and contemporary historical events. Excerpts have been published by Rudolf Strothmann in "Kleinere Ismailitische Schriften", ''Islamic Research Association Miscellany'', Vol. 1 (1948), pp. 145–146 & 153–163, and in Rabab Hamiduddin's PhD thesis ''The Qasidah of the Tayyibi Da'wah and the Diwan of Syedna Ali B. Muhammad Al-Walid'' at the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London), 2001. * ''Ḍiyạ̄ʾ al-albāb'', unpublished manuscript. * ''Lubb al-maʿārif'', unpublished manuscript. * ''Lubāb al-fawāʾid'', unpublished manuscript. * ''Risālat mulḥiqat al-adhhān'', unpublished manuscript. * ''Mukhtaṣar al-uṣūl'', a refutation of the doctrines of the
Sunnis Sunni Islam () is the largest Islamic schools and branches, 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 ...
,
Mu'tazilis Muʿtazila ( ar, المعتزلة ', English: "Those Who Withdraw, or Stand Apart", and who called themselves ''Ahl al-ʿAdl wa al-Tawḥīd'', English: "Party of ivineJustice and Oneness f God); was an Islamic group that appeared in early Islamic ...
,
Zaydis Zaydism (''h'') is a unique branch of Shia Islam that emerged in the eighth century following Zayd ibn Ali‘s unsuccessful rebellion against the Umayyad Caliphate. In contrast to other Shia Muslims of Twelver Shi'ism and Isma'ilism, Zaydis, a ...
, and the philosophers "who deny God all attributes", still unpublished. * ''Risālat al-bayān wa-mudḥiḍat al-buhtān'', a refutation of Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Ahwari, a rival of Hatim ibn Ibrahim for the position of ''Dā'ī al-Mutlaq''. Unpublished manuscript. * ''Majālis al-nuṣḥ wa-l-bayān'', unpublished manuscript.


References


Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Walid 1120s births 1215 deaths Banu al-Walid al-Anf Tayyibi da'is Ismaili theologians Medieval Arabic poets Medieval Arabic-language writers 12th century in Yemen 13th century in Yemen 12th-century Arabs 13th-century Arabs 13th-century Ismailis 13th-century Islamic religious leaders