Coping with External and Internal Disintegration Forces: Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ and the Stabilization of Mālikīsm in the Maghrib

Abstract

Abstract This article approaches Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ b. Mūsā’s contribution to the stabilization of Mālikīsm in the Islamic West through his characterization of three important Andalusī figures of the school: Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Abū l-Walīd al-Bāǧī and Abū Bakr al-Ṭurṭūšī. ʿIyāḍ’s biographies of these scholars in two of his works, Tartīb al-madārik and al-Ġunya, are compared with those of Ibn Farḥūn (d. 799/1397) in his al-Dībāǧ al-mudhab. These biographical dictionaries, Tartīb and Dibāǧ, are the two main sources for the pre-modern history of Mālikīsm. The results of this comparison go beyond an analysis of Iyāḍ’s contribution to the stabilization of the Mālikī school in the Maghrib. The strong dependence of the Dībāǧ on the Tartīb reveals Ibn Farḥūn’s vision of his great Maghribī predecessor which in turn forms an interesting intra-history of Mālikīsm worth preserving. Using Ibn Farḥūn’s Dībāǧ as a point of comparison also helps us to observe how the circumstances projected by the Tartīb evolved over time and space thus contributing to a better understanding of the process of doctrinal stabilization and social normalization of the Mālikī madhab West but also East. After introducing ʿIyāḍ’s facet as a historian and a biographer in Section 1, I present his biographies of the three selected scholars. In Section 3, I discuss the main differences in the way ʿIyāḍ and Ibn Farḥūn approached each of their contributions to Mālikīsm to wrap up the significance of these differences in the conclusions.