Asad ibn al-Furat

Asad ibn al-Furāt al-Harrānī (أسد بن الفرات الحراني, DMG Asad ibn al-Furāt al-Ḥarrānī , b. 759 ; d. 828 ), was an important legal scholar in Ifrīqiya with Qairawān .

The family originally came from Harran in Mesopotamia , but his father immigrated with him to Ifriqiya. Asad later studied in Medina with Mālik ibn Anas , the founder of the Maliki school of law , and in Kufa with students of Abū Hanīfa , the founder of the Hanafi legal tradition. He summarized his legal views in the "Asadiyya" , which gained great influence in Ifriqiya. He is considered to be the first to disseminate the Hanafi teachings of ash-Shaibānī in the Islamic West.

After his return to Ifriqiya, Asad was used by the Aghlabids as Qādī in Qairawān, which soon led to conflicts as he often criticized Ziyādat Allaah I (817-838) for his luxurious and indecent lifestyle. In order to neutralize this uncomfortable warning, Asad was appointed leader of a campaign against Byzantine Sicily . Under the pretext of helping the Byzantine usurper Euphemios , Asad landed with the Arab troops in Sicily in 827 and conquered Marsala, the first city for Islam in Italy . After defeating Byzantine troops, the Muslims advanced on Syracuse but were unable to conquer the city. Soon after, Asad ibn al-Furat died of the plague in Sicily.

As a Hanafit he played a leading role in the tension between the Malikites of Qairawān and, like his followers, understood how to consolidate Hanafi legal doctrine as the basis of the judiciary in Ifriqiya under the Aghlabids. A turn in favor of the Malikites only occurred with the work of Sahnūn ibn Saʿīd , the founder of the Maliki school of law in Ifriqiya, in the first half of the 9th century.

literature

• Fuat Sezgin : History of Arabic Literature . Volume I: Quranic studies, Ḥadīṯ, history, fiqh, dogmatics, mysticism. Until about 430 H. Brill, Leiden 1967, pp. 465-466
• Miklós Murányi : The law books of the Qairawāner Saḥnūn b. Saʿīd. History of origin and transmission of works. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1999 (Treatises for the Customer of the Orient, Volume 52,3), pp. 1–22, ISBN 3-515-07311-6
• The Encyclopaedia of Islam. New Edition . Volume I, Brill, Leiden 1960, p. 685