Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi

For the Egyptian encyclopedist see Shihab al-Din abu 'l-Abbas Ahmad ben Ali ben Ahmad Abd Allah al-Qalqashandi.

Shihab al-Din abu l-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Ali ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi'l-'Afiyya al-Miknasi az-Zanati, known simply as Ahmad ibn al-Qadi or Ibn al-Qadi (1552/1553–1616), was a Moroccan polygraph. He was the leading writer from Ahmad al-Mansur's court in Morocco next to Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali. He was also a renowned judge and mathematician.

Biography

Ahmad ibn al-Qadi was born in Fez in 1552/1553. His family was called the Ibn al-Qadi, a Berber family that belonged to the Miknasa tribe, a tribe of the Zenata confederation. Their ancestor was the Miknasi tribal chief, Musa ibn Abi al-Afiya. Several members of this family were established in Fez and Meknes. The Ibn al-qadi family gave birth to distinguished people, who, during the previous centuries, had held high political or religious offices and had become famous as islamic scholars.

Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi studied with Abd al-Wahid al-Sijilmasi, the famous Moroccan mufti and Ahmad Baba al Massufi. The jurisdiction of Salé was assigned to him. At the age of 34 he undertook a journey to the east, but his ship was captured by Christian pirates. Ibn al-Qadi spent eleven months in captivity and was released thanks to sultan Ahmad al-Mansur who paid as ransom the equivalent of 20 thousand ounces of gold.

Works

A number of Ibn al-Qadi's scholarly works survive, including two collections of biographies of great documentary value:

• Al-Muntaqa al-maqsur 'ala ma'athir al-khilafat Abi al-Abbas al-Mansur; his primary work, a panegyric of al-Mansur's great character that qualify him the rightful caliph of Islam.
• Jadwat al Iqtibas Fi-man halla min al'alam madinata fas ('The Torch of learning in the recollection of the most influential notables of the city of Fez')
• Dhīl wafayāt al-'ayān al-musamā<<Durrat al-hidjāl fī asmā’ al-ridjāl>> (ذيل وفيات الأعيان المسمى «درة الحجال فى أسماء الرجال») Appendix to obituaries of the notable names.

Sources

• Hajji, M. (1988). Al-Zawiya al-Dila'iyya [The Zaouia of Dila] (in Arabic) (2nd ed.). Rabat.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
• El Hatimi, Mohammed (2004). "al-Qadi (-ibn) Ahmad ibn Muhammad (historian)". In Toufiq, Ahmed (ed.). Ma'lamat al-Maghrib (Encyclopedia of Morocco) (in Arabic). Vol. Vol. 19. al-Jamī‘a al-Maghribiyya li-l-Ta’līf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help)
• Lévi-Provençal, Évariste (1922). Larose, Emile (ed.). Les historiens des Chorfa: essai sur la littérature historique et biographique au Maroc du XVIe au XXe siècle (in French). Paris: Émile Larose.
• Mrini, Najat (2004). "Ibn al-Qadi, Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi al-Afiya (writer)". In Toufiq, Ahmed (ed.). Ma'lamat al-Maghrib (Encyclopedia of Morocco) (in Arabic). Vol. Vol. 19. al-Jamī‘a al-Maghribiyya li-l-Ta’līf wa-l-Tarjama wa-l-Nashr. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |volume= has extra text (help)