al-Bādschī

Abū l-Walīd Sulaimān ibn Chalaf al-Bādschī ( Arabic أبو الوليد سليمان بن خلف الباجي, DMG Abū l-Walīd Sulaimān ibn Ḫalaf al-Bāǧī ; born in June / July 1013; died December 21, 1081 in Almería ) was an Arabic hadith scholar, legal theorist and poet in al-Andalus at the time of the Taifa kingdoms . Its intellectual historical significance lies primarily in its further development of Maliki Fiqh through the introduction of new legal instruments and text-hermeneutic methods, which he had got to know on a long trip to the Orient. Because of his combination of extensive knowledge of hadith, rational speculation and strong argumentation, al-Bādschī is still very much valued in today's Islamic world. Many of his works have been made available in modern print editions.

Life

Origin and youth

Al-Bādschī's maternal family came from Badajoz . His maternal grandfather, a lawyer whose name is Muhammad ibn Mauhab. or Abū Bakr al-Qabarī is given, moved to Cordoba at an unknown time . Al-Bādschī's father originally lived in the city of Beja in what is now Tunisia and worked as a merchant. As part of his business, he traveled regularly to al-Andalus. In Córdoba he attended al-Qabarīs classes for a year and then married his daughter, who bore him Abū l-Walīd and two other sons.

It is unclear whether al-Bādschī is named after the North African hometown of his father or after the city of the same name, Beja near Seville. While Ibn ʿAsākir assumes the former, other Arab authors point out that al-Bādschīs maternal family lived for a time in Beja near Seville before moving to Córdoba and al-Bādschīs Nisba refer accordingly to this city.

According to a handwritten note from his mother, who was a legal scholar herself, al-Bādschī was born in the Dhū l-Hiddscha of the year 403 (= June / July 1013 AD). He grew up in Córdoba and studied with various teachers, including his maternal uncle Abū Shākir al-Qabarī. He initially dealt mainly with adab and poetry and made a name for himself with it. Later, however, his interest shifted more to the religious sciences.

Stay in the Orient

In 1034/35 he went on an extensive educational trip to the Orient. His journey began in the Hejaz , where he studied with various teachers and took part in Hajj four times . His most important teachers were Ibn Muhriz (d. 1058) and the Ashʿaritic hadith scholar Abū Dharr al-Harawī (d. 1042/3), who had married an Arab wife and lived with her family in the Sarāt Mountains south of Mecca . Al-Bādschī spent three years in his ministry and heard hadeeth from him, for example the full Saheeh al-Buchari . Much of the manuscripts of the work that were later in circulation in the Maghreb came from the version of the work that al-Bādschī had received from Abū Dharr and later introduced in al-Andalus.

After this time he moved to Baghdad, where he spent another three years studying hadith and fiqh and worked as a night watchman for a living. Among his teachers were the legal scholars Abū l-Fadl ibn ʿAmrūs (d. 1060/61), the head of the Malikites , Abū t-Taiyib at-Tabarī (d. 1058/59), head of the Shafiites , the Qādī Abū ʿAbdallāh as- Saimarī (d. 1044/45), head of the Hanafites , and the Shafiit Abū Ishāq asch-Shīrāzī (d. 1083/84), with whom he mainly studied legal theory.

Al-Bādschī then traveled to Mosul , where he studied rational science (ʿaqlīyāt) for a year with Abū Jaʿfar as-Simnānī (d. 1052/53), a disciple of al-Bāqillānī , and became involved in the criticism of hadith (ʿilal al -ḥadīṯ) , in solving difficult legal issues and Kalam excelled. Other stops on his journey were Damascus , Sidon , and Aleppo , where he worked as a qādī for a year . Ibn Bassām narrates in his main work a poem in praise of al-Bādschīs on the Mirdāsid prince Muʿizz ad-Daula Thimāl, who took Aleppo in 1042.

After the return: relations with the rulers

After his return to al-Andalus in 1047/48, al-Bādschī initially earned his living for a while with the production of gold plates for brocade fabrics and the binding of documents. As his reputation as a scholar grew, "worldly goods waved to him" (haiyatat ad-dunyā bi-hī) . The leading personalities took him into their service and gave him gifts. Some of them hired him to conduct their correspondence and paid him a living so that he would have enough money until his death. Al-Bādschī frequently traveled back and forth between the places Zaragoza , Valencia , Murcia and Dénia . Al-Bādschī also took over the Qādī office in several places . When the places were too small for him to hold the qadi office there himself, such as Orihuela , he would send deputies there. In particular, the Hūdide al-Muqtadir, who ruled Saragossa from 1049 to 1082, rewarded him generously for his services as a Qādī and political mediator.

Al-Bādschī also made attempts on his travels to bring about peace between the Taifa kings, but his efforts in this regard were unsuccessful.

Confrontations with other scholars

Al-Bādschī also visited Mallorca , where he had several public disputations with the Zāhirite scholar Ibn Hazm , who was the leading scholar here. Al-Bādschī cornered him so much in the public disputations that Ibn Hazm was defeated and left the island.

Because of his frequent dealings with the rulers, there was a lot of bad talk about al-Bādjī. In Dénia , where al-Bādjī was also active, he had a dispute with the scholar Abū Bakr Ibn as-Sā'igh, who accused him of disbelief because he read a hadith from Saheeh al-Buchārī , in which it is reported, literally interpreted that the Prophet had written something down during the expedition to al-Hudaibiya. Since this hadith contradicts the doctrine of the illiteracy of the Prophet Mohammed , which is derived from Sura 29 : 48 and 62: 2, Ibn as-Sā'igh accused him of questioning the truthfulness of the Koran. The controversy made waves in al-Andalus, the masses were incited and the preachers talked about it during Friday prayers . The poet ʿAbdallāh ibn Hind composed a mocking poem about him in which he not only accused him of heretical teachings, but also formally renounced him and accused him, unlike the Koran (Sura 4:74), of the right to the hereafter to have sold for this world.

Al-Bādschī was therefore compelled to explain his position on the issue in a missive. In this text he tried to make it clear that Muhammad's ability to write in al-Hudaibiya did not impair the miraculous character of the Qur'an , and put forward the idea that this situational writing ability of Muhammad himself represented a prophetic miracle (muʿǧiza) .

The End

At the end of his life, al-Bādschī undertook a diplomatic mission to Almeria to urge the Taifa kings to take joint action against the Christians and to cooperate with the Almoravids . But before he could reach his goal he died on 17th Rajab 474 (= 21st December 1081).

Al-Bādschī had numerous students, including Abū ʿAlī as-Sadafī (d. 1120), at-Turtūschī (d. 1126), and al-Humaidī (d. 1095). His son and student Abū l-Qāsim Ahmad (d. 1099/1100) succeeded him as a Usūl scholar, theologian and polemicist. Another son named Abū l-Hasan Muhammad had died in Zaragoza while al-Bādschī was alive.

Works

Al-Bādschī has composed at least forty works, most of which deal with the areas of Fiqh, Usūl al-fiqh and Hadith. The following works in particular have received a lot of attention in the recent past:

• Iḥkām al-fuṣūl fī aḥkām al-uṣūl , Treatise on Usūl al-fiqh ,
• Kitāb al-Išāra fī maʿrifat al-uṣūl wa-l-waǧāza fī maʿnā d-dalīl , widely used summary of the preceding work,
• Kitāb al-Ḥudūd fī uṣūl al-fiqh , definitions of terms from the realm of Usūl al-fiqh (Ed. Muṣṭafā al-Azharī, Riad 2008).
• Kitāb al-taʿdīl wa-l-taǧrīḥ li-man ḫarraǧa ʿanhu al-Buḫārī fī l-Ǧāmiʿ aṣ-ṣaḥīḥ , critical treatment of the traditionarians on which al-Buchārī relies in his saheeh . The work was edited in three volumes by Aḥmad Labzār (Rabat 1991).
• Al-Muntaqā fī ṣarḥ al-Muwaṭṭaʾ fī l-fiqh wa-l-maʿānī , commentary on the Muwaṭṭaʾ by Mālik ibn Anas . The modern print edition of Muḥammad Tāmir (Cairo 2004) comprises ten volumes. Al-Maqqarī praised the work as "the best book that has ever been written in the Maliki school of law, because it explains the hadiths of Muwa Muaʾ and the norms derived from them."
• Fuṣūl al-aḥkām wa-bayān mā maḍā bihi l-ʿamal ʿinda l-fuqahāʾ wa-l-ḥukkām Treatise on Fiqh ,
• Kitāb al-Minhāǧ fī tartīb al-ḥiǧāǧ , on the art of reasoning in connection with Islamic legal theory,
• Ǧawāb li-risālat ar-rāhib min Afransa , refutation of the arguments of a French monk who sent a letter to al-Muqtadir, the emir of Saragossa, urging him to convert to Christianity,
• Waṣīya li-waladaihi , ethical and religious exhortations to his two sons, in the form of a moral testament.

literature

Arabic sources

• Aḥmad ibn Yaḥyā al-Ḍabbī: Buġyat al-multamis fī taʾrīḫ riǧāl ahl al-Andalus . Ed. Francisco Codera and Julián Ribera. Dār al-Kitāb al-ʿArabī, Cairo, 1967. pp. 302b-303b (No. 777). Digitized
• Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī ad-Dāwūdī: Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirīn . Ed. ʿAlī Muḥammad ʿUmar. Dār al-Kutub al-ʿilmīya, Beirut, ca.1983. Vol. I, pp. 208-212 (No. 197). Digitized
• Shams ad-Dīn aḏ-Ḏahabī : Taḏkirat al-Ḥuffāẓ. Dāʾirat al-Maʿārif al-ʿUṯmānīya, Hyderabad, 1955. Vol. III, pp. 1178–1183. Digitized
• Shams ad-Dīn aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ. Ed. Shuʿaib al-Arnaʾūṭ and ʿAlī Abū Zayd. Beirut 1986. Vol. XVIII, pp. 535-45 (No. 274). Digitized
• Ibn ʿAsākir : Taʾrīḫ madīnat Dimašq . Vol. 22nd Ed. ʿUmar ibn Ġarāma al-ʿUmarī. Dār al-Fikr, Beirut, 1995. pp. 224-229. Digitized
• Ibn Bassām : aḏ-Ḏaḫīra fī maḥāsin ahl al-Ǧazīra . Ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās. Beirut 1997. Vol. II, pp. 94-105. Digitized
• Abū Naṣr al-Fatḥ Ibn Ḫāqān: Qalāʾid al-ʿiqyān wa-maḥāsin al-aʿyān . Bulaq , 1866. pp. 188-190. Digitized
• ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā : Tartīb al-madārik wa-taqrīb al-masālik li-maʿrifat aʿlām maḏhab Mālik . Wizārat al-Auqāf, Rabat 1965–83. Vol. VIII, pp. 117-127. Digitized
• Al-Maqqarī : Nafḥ aṭ-ṭīb min ġuṣn al-Andalus ar-raṭīb . Ed. Iḥsān ʿAbbās. Dār Ṣādir, Beirut, 1968. Vol. II, pp. 67-77 Digitized

Secondary literature

• Adalberto Alves: To humanista árabe do século XI. Abū al-Wālid al-Bāji . Beja 1990.
• Francisco Vidal Castro: Art. Al-Bājī, Abū l-Walīd in Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE. Edited by: Kate Fleet, Gudrun Krämer, Denis Matringe, John Nawas, Everett Rowson. Brill Online, 2015. Online with Paywall
• DM Dunlop: Art. Al-Bā dj ī in The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Vol. I, pp. 864b-865a.
• Abdel Magid Turki: Polémiques entre Ibn Ḥazm et Bāǧī sur les principes de la loi musulmane. Essai sur le littéralisme ẓāhirite et la finalité mālikite . Algiers 1975.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ So aḍ-Ḍabbī: Buġyat al-multamis . 1967, p. 303a.
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Cf. Ibn ʿAsākir: Taʾrīḫ madīnat Dimašq . Vol. XXII, pp. 226f.
3. ↑ See e.g. B. ad-Dāwūdī: Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirīn . 1983, Vol. I, p. 208.
4. ↑ Cf. ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā: Tartīb al-madārik . Vol. VIII, p. 117.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Cf. al-Maqqarī: Nafḥ aṭ-ṭīb min ġuṣn al-Andalus ar-raṭīb . 1968, Vol. II, p. 68.
6. ↑ Cf. aḍ-Ḍabbī: Buġyat al-multamis . 1967, p. 303a.
7. ↑ Cf. ad-Dāwūdī: Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirīn . 1983, Vol. I, p. 208, al-Maqqarī: Nafḥ aṭ-ṭīb min ġuṣn al-Andalus ar-raṭīb . 1968, Vol. II, pp. 69f and ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā: Tartīb al-madārik . Vol. VIII, p. 117.
8. ↑ Cf. al-Maqqarī: Nafḥ aṭ-ṭīb min ġuṣn al-Andalus ar-raṭīb . 1968, Vol. II, pp. 70f.
9. ↑ ^{a b} Cf. ad-Dāwūdī: Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirīn . 1983, Vol. I, p. 209.
10. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ. 1986, Vol. XVIII, p. 537.
11. ↑ Cf. Ibn ʿAsākir: Taʾrīḫ madīnat Dimašq . Vol. XXII, p. 225.
12. ↑ Cf. Ibn Bassām: aḏ-Ḏaḫīra fī maḥāsin ahl al-Ǧazīra . Vol. II, p. 102.
13. ↑ ^{a b} So aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ. 1986, Vol. XVIII, p. 538.
14. ↑ Cf. ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā: Tartīb al-madārik . Vol. VIII, p. 119.
15. ↑ ^{a b} So aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ. 1986, Vol. XVIII, p. 539.
16. ↑ Cf. Ibn Ḫāqān: Qalāʾid al-ʿiqyān wa-maḥāsin al-aʿyān . 1866, p. 189.
17. ↑ Cf. al-Maqqarī: Nafḥ aṭ-ṭīb min ġuṣn al-Andalus ar-raṭīb . 1968, Vol. II, p. 77.
18. ↑ So aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ. 1986, Vol. XVIII, p. 540.
19. ↑ ^{a b} Cf. ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā: Tartīb al-madārik . Vol. VIII, p. 122.
20. ↑ Cf. aḏ-Ḏahabī: Siyar aʿlām al-nubalāʾ. 1986, Vol. XVIII, pp. 540f.
21. ↑ Cf. ad-Dāwūdī: Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirīn . 1983, Vol. I, pp. 211f.
22. ↑ Cf. ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā: Tartīb al-madārik . Vol. VIII, p. 123.
23. ↑ Cf. ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā: Tartīb al-madārik . Vol. VIII, p. 126f.
24. ↑ Cf. ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā: Tartīb al-madārik . Vol. VIII, p. 126.
25. ↑ Cf. al-Maqqarī: Nafḥ aṭ-ṭīb min ġuṣn al-Andalus ar-raṭīb . 1968, Vol. II, p. 69.