Ibn Ḥazm

Savant

Abū Muḥammad ʿAlī ibn Aḥmad ibn Saʿīd ibn Ḥazm was born in Córdoba in 384 AH (994) and died in 456 AH (1064) in Manta Lisham, near Niebla, in what is now Andalusia. Son of a vizier of the Umayyad caliphate, he grew up in the palace and received a refined education, notably from the women of the palace who taught him the Quran, poetry and writing. A time of trouble The fall of the Caliphate of Cordoba and the civil war (fitna) turned his life upside down: exiles, imprisonments, confiscation of family property. He was vizier of Umayyad suitors several times before devoting himself entirely to science. The ẓāhirite jurist Initially a Shafiʿite, Ibn Ḥazm adopted the ẓāhirite school, which sticks to the apparent meaning of the Quran and the Sunnah and rejects reasoning by analogy (qiyās). He became its greatest representative. His major legal work, al-Muḥallā, precisely discusses the opinions of the companions and jurists. Al-Iḥkām fī uṣūl al-aḥkām explains his method. The historian of religions Al-Fiṣal fī al-milal wa-l-ahwāʾ wa-n-niḥal is one of the first works of comparative history of religions and doctrines, where it examines Judaism, Christianity and the different Muslim schools. The Dove's Necklace Ṭawq al-ḥamāma, written in his youth, is a delicate treatise on love and its different forms, nourished by personal memories. It is now translated into many languages, including French. His outspokenness earned him many adversaries; some of his books were even burned in Seville during his lifetime. Photo: statue of Ibn Ḥazm in Cordoba.