Moḥammed ibn al-Hajj al-Abdari al-Fasi (or Mohammed Ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed Abu Abdallah Ibn al-Hajj al-Abdari al-Maliki al-Fassi; ) also known simply as Ibn al-Haj or Ibn al-Hajj was a Moroccan

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 ...

scholar and theologian writer. Originally from

Fes Fez () or Fes (; ) is a city in northern inland Morocco and the capital of the Fez-Meknes administrative region. It is one of the largest cities in Morocco, with a population of 1.256 million, according to the 2024 census. Located to the nort ...

, he would finish his life in Egypt where he died in 1336. He is most remembered for his famous book "al-Madkhal".

Biography

Ibn al-Haj studied under many scholars of high standing in various cities and provinces, including

Tunis Tunis (, ') is the capital city, capital and largest city of Tunisia. The greater metropolitan area of Tunis, often referred to as "Grand Tunis", has about 2,700,000 inhabitants. , it is the third-largest city in the Maghreb region (after Casabl ...

, Al-Qairawan,

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 ...

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 addition to

Madinah Medina, officially al-Madinah al-Munawwarah (, ), also known as Taybah () and known in pre-Islamic times as Yathrib (), is the capital of Medina Province (Saudi Arabia), Medina Province in the Hejaz region of western Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ...

and

Makkah Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above sea level. Its metropo ...

. Ibn al-Haj al-Abdari wrote ''Madkhal Ash-Shara Ash-Shareef Ala Al-Mathahib'' (''Introduction to Islamic Jurisprudence According to Schools of Thought''). The book was published in 4 volumes of over 300 large pages each. It treats many different subjects. In the first volume the author includes 22 chapters, each addressing one question where practice is at variance with Islamic teachings. He scrutinizes the practice and points out the proper way to follow. Thus we have chapters on intention, pursuing knowledge, prayer, the position of a mosque as a place of education, offering prayers at home, the behavior of scholars during scholarly debate, etc. The second volume has 62 chapters with a similar number of questions, including the Prophet's birthday, the position of Madinah, the manners to be followed by students, women's behavior, etc. The whole book is written in this way, without any particular thread for the arrangement of its chapters and questions. It is not a book on Fiqh in the usual sense, nor is it a book of education and its methods, or a book of Hadith or Qur'anic commentary, but it includes something of all these disciplines. His views are very much influenced by

al-Ghazali Al-Ghazali ( – 19 December 1111), archaically Latinized as Algazelus, was a Shafi'i Sunni Muslim scholar and polymath. He is known as one of the most prominent and influential jurisconsults, legal theoreticians, muftis, philosophers, the ...

's ''Ihya’ ‘Ulum al-Din''.Perspectives : revue trimestrielle d’éducation comparée (Paris, UNESCO : Bureau international d’éducation), vol. XXIII, n° 3-4, 1993, p. 531-555. (influence) He spent much of his life in

and

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

and, for some time, taught at the university of

Al-Qarawiyyin The University of al-Qarawiyyin (), also written Al-Karaouine or Al Quaraouiyine, is a university located in Fez, Morocco. It was founded as a mosque by Fatima al-Fihri in 857–859 and subsequently became one of the leading spiritual and educ ...

. He was buried in

Qarafa The City of the Dead, or Cairo Necropolis, also referred to as the Qarafa (; locally pronounced as ''al-'arafa''), is a series of vast Islamic-era necropolises and cemetery, cemeteries in Cairo, Egypt. They extend to the north and to the south of ...

(Egypt). He is not to be confused with

Mohammed al-Abdari al-Hihi Abu Abdallah Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Ali ibn Ahmed ibn Masoud ibn Hajj al-Abdari al-Hihi () (fl. ca. 1289) was a Moroccan travel writer. He was born among the Hhaha tribe (Berber), Haha, a Berber tribe in the south of Morocco. He is the author ...

(full name :Abu Abdallah Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Ali ibn Ahmed ibn Masoud ibn Hajj al-Abdari al-Hihi, fl. ca. 1289) who wrote accounts of his travels. That writer is the author of ''The Moroccan Journey'' (''Al-Rihlah al-Magribiyyah''), an account of his journey to Mecca in 1289.

References

External links

For a biography se

(retrieved September 11, 2008) N.B. This site mistakenly assumes that the two authors are the same. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ibn al-Haj al-Abdari 1336 deaths Writers under the Almoravid dynasty Scholars from the Almoravid Empire Scholars from Fez, Morocco Year of birth unknown 13th-century jurists 14th-century jurists