Ibn Marzuq (

full name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is kno ...

: Shams al-Din Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-ʿAjisi al-Tilimsani, also known as al-Khatib (the Preacher) or al-Jadd (the Grandfather) or al-Rais (the Leader); c. 1310–1379) was a prominent the 14th century scholar from

Tlemcen Tlemcen (; ar, تلمسان, translit=Tilimsān) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran, and capital of the Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the p ...

Biography

He was born around 1310 in

and travelled in his late teens to the orient, where he studied with a group of around 250 scholars for fifteen years. He returned to the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

as a faqih, or expert in Islamic law. The

Marinid The Marinid Sultanate was a Berber Muslim empire from the mid-13th to the 15th century which controlled present-day Morocco and, intermittently, other parts of North Africa (Algeria and Tunisia) and of the southern Iberian Peninsula (Spain) ar ...

sultan,

Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman Abu Al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Othman (c. 1297 – 24 May 1351), () was a sultan of the Marinid dynasty who reigned in Morocco between 1331 and 1348. In 1333 he captured Gibraltar from the Castilians, although a later attempt to take Tarifa in 1339 en ...

, appointed Ibn Marzuq to the position of preacher at the al-ʿUbbad mosque in his native Tlemcen. Ibn Marzuq subsequently became the sultan's advisor, teacher and secretary and was given an important diplomatic role, negotiating with rulers in

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

and

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

, where he concluded a peace treaty with the King of Castile, Alphonse XI. On the death of Abu al-Hasan, he returned to Tlemcen, where he engaged in intrigue against the new Marinid sultan

Abu Inan Faris Abu Inan Faris (1329 – 10 January 1358) ( ar, أبو عنان فارس بن علي) was a Marinid ruler of Morocco. He succeeded his father Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman in 1348. He extended his rule over Tlemcen and Ifriqiya, which covered ...

, before fleeing to

, where he was offered the position of khatib (sermon-giver) at the great mosque al-Hamra in Granada. He was recalled to Fez, where he held a high position until the disastrous failure of a diplomatic mission to Spain led to him being imprisoned for six years. Soon after his release in 1358, he moved to

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, where he was offered a high position by ''Abu Salim Ibrahim''. He remained there until 1372, when he retired to

Cairo Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the largest urban agglomeration in Africa, the Arab world and the Middle East: The Greater Cairo metr ...

for the last seven years of his life to serve as Grand

Qadi A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...

Works

Ibn Marzuq is known for his works of legal, religious and historical scholarship. Among his most notable is his 1371 hagiographical history of the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan. The book emphasizes Ibn Marzuq's own role in al-Hasan's reign; he evidently sought to burnish his own achievements for his self-aggrandizement. Titled ''The Correct and Fine Traditions About the Glorious Deeds of our Master Abu 'l-Hasan'' (''Musnad as-sahid al-hasan fi maʿathir mawlana Abi 'l Hasan''), the book discusses the qualities of the sultan, his court, and the works undertaken during his reign. For a study of the work, see Evariste Levi-Provençal, ''Un nouveau texte d'histoire merinide: Le Musnad d'Ibn Marzuk'', Paris, 1925. A Spanish translation was published in 1977 by the Instituto Hispano-Arabe de Cultura, as ''El Musnad: Hechos memorables de Abu l-Hasan, sultan de los benimerines''. He also wrote a ''kitâb al-imâma'', a definition of the Islamic caliphate and discussion of political and governmental principles, as well as an extremely voluminous ''fahrasa'' (list of teachers) which, unusually, includes a number of learned women. His work ''Miftah al-Wusul'' was recently translated into English by Professor Mohammad S. Alrahawan and was published in 2020 by Peter Lang/ International Academic Publishers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Marzuq, Ibn 1310 births 1379 deaths People from Tlemcen 14th-century jurists