Al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ

Savant

Abū al-Faḍl ʿIyāḍ ibn Mūsā al-Yaḥṣubī was born in Ceuta in 476 AH (1083) and died in Marrakech in 544 AH (1149). A Maghreb saying states: “Without ʿIyāḍ, we would not have mentioned the Maghreb”, such was his authority. Training and career After his first studies in Ceuta, he went to al-Andalus, to Cordoba, Murcia and elsewhere, to study hadith and fiqh with the best masters. Returning to his city, he became its qadi, then was named qadi of Granada. Loyal to the Almoravids, he resisted the arrival of the Almohads; he was exiled and died in Marrakech, where his tomb is venerated. He is one of the Sabʿatu Rijāl, the seven patron saints of the city. Al-Shifā Kitāb al-Shifā bi-taʿrīf ḥuqūq al-Muṣṭafā is his most famous work. It brings together the verses and hadiths showing the rank of the Prophet ﷺ, his qualities, his miracles, and the duties of believers towards him: love, respect, prayer over him. The book is read and commented on throughout the Muslim world, and particularly in North and West Africa. Other works Tartīb al-madārik is a large biographical dictionary of scholars of the Mālikite school, an essential source for the history of the school. Ikmāl al-muʿlim is a commentary on Muslim's Ṣaḥīḥ. Mashāriq al-anwār explains the difficult terms of the hadith collections of Mālik, al-Bukhārī and Muslim. Photo: page from an al-Shifā manuscript.