Badr ad-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa

Badr ad-Dīn Muhammad Ibn Jamāʿa ( Arabic بدر الدين محمد ابن جماعة; * 1241 in Hamat ; † 1333 in Cairo ) was an Islamic legal scholar and Qādī of the Shafiite teaching. It is significant for the history of political theories in Islam because in one of his writings he advocated the merging of the caliphate and sultanate .

Life

After studying Islamic law, Ibn Jamāʿa first became a lecturer in Damascus . In 1288 he moved to Jerusalem as Qādī and in 1291 to Cairo, where he held the post of the highest Shafiite Qādī in the service of the Mamluk Sultan. This office was held by Ibn Jamāʿa, apart from a break from 1293 to 1303, during which he led a Sufi order in Damascus, until his retirement in 1327.

Works

Carl Brockelmann lists eight works by Badr ad-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿa in his History of Arabic Literature . The best known of these is his handbook of Islamic constitutional and administrative law "Summary of the rules for the conduct of the people of Islam" (Taḥrīr al-aḥkām fī tadbīr ahl al-islam) . It was edited by Hans Kofler from 1934 to 1938 in the magazine Islamica and translated into German. Another edition created by ʿAbd al-Munʿim Ahmad was published in Qatar in 1991 . The book has 17 chapters. The individual topics of these chapters are: 1. the necessity of the imamate and its requirements; 2. Rights and duties of the caliph and sultan; 3. the appointment of the viziers and their tasks; 4. the establishment of emirs for jihad ; 5. the preservation of the Sharia and the offices necessary for it ( Qādī , Mufti , Hisba ); 6. Recruiting and firing soldiers for jihad; 7. Contributions from the ruler; 8. the pay of the soldiers; 9. Horses, weapons and implements of war for those who practice jihad; 10. the Sultan's Dīwān ; 11. Excellence and rules of jihad; 12. the type of fighting; 13. the Ghanīma prey with its subspecies; 14. Distribution of the Ghanīma booty; 15. Hudna Armistice, Amān Protection Guarantee and Musta'min ; 16. Combating Muslim insurgents; 17. Dhimma relationship.

Political teaching

The second chapter of his treatise on constitutional law is particularly important. Here Ibn Jamāʿa advocates the thesis that the most important task of the state leadership is to ensure law and order. The distinction between caliph and sultan is blurred under this paradigm. It is therefore legitimate for the sultan to exercise the former powers of the caliph.

With this work Ibn Jamāʿa laid the theoretical foundation for the emerging Mamluk Sultanate. Since the Mongols had taken the former seat of the Sunni caliph with the conquest of Damascus , the Mamluk sultans have claimed the title of caliph for themselves.

literature

• Carl Brockelmann : History of Arabic Literature. 3 volumes + 2 supplement volumes Leiden: Brill 1938-1949. Vol. II, pp. 89f, Suppl-Vol. II, p. 80f.
• Amalia Levanoni: Art. Ibn Jama'a (1241-1333) . In: The Princeton Encyclopedia of Islamic Political Thought , 2003, ISBN 978-0-691-13484-0 , pp. 234f.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Handbook of Islamic Constitutional and Administrative Law by Badr-ad-dīn ibn Ǧamā'ah, edited, translated and annotated by Hans Kofler, in: Islamica 6 (1934), pp. 349-414 ; Islamica 7/1 (1938), pp. 1-64 ; Islamica 7/2 (1938), pp. 18-129 .
2. ↑ The book is available here in digitized form.