Abd Allah al-Maqdisi
- Died
- 1091 AH
- Born in
- -
Abd Allah al-Maqdisi (d. after 1091 AH / 1680 CE) was a Hanbali jurist known for his legal commentary on Dalil al-Talib li-Nayl al-Matalib.
Identity and Family
His full lineage is Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Yahya ibn Yusuf ibn Abi Bakr ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Yusuf ibn Ahmad al-Karmi al-Maqdisi al-Hanbali. He belonged to the scholarly al-Karmi family of Jerusalem; his father, Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Karmi (d. 1091 AH / 1680 CE; another report gives 1071 AH), was an ascetic scholar and jurist who had studied in Cairo under his own paternal uncle, the prominent jurist Mar'i ibn Yusuf al-Karmi. Abd Allah transmitted biographical and spiritual anecdotes from his father.
In later bio-bibliographical literature, his exact identity was initially obscured; Bakr Abu Zayd noted in al-Madkhal al-Mufassal that his identity was unresolved, but later research confirmed him as the son of Ahmad ibn Yahya al-Karmi.
Legal Commentary and Reception
Al-Maqdisi authored an intermediate legal commentary on his grand-uncle Mar'i ibn Yusuf's primer Dalil al-Talib li-Nayl al-Matalib, titled Sharh Dalil al-Talib. His commentary is characterized by concise prose, incorporating scriptural proofs and legal rationales alongside rulings. In resolving issues, he drew extensively from major late Hanbali reference works—primarily Muntaha al-Iradat, al-Iqna', their commentaries and supercommentaries, Ghayat al-Muntaha, and al-Insaf—while frequently highlighting divergences between al-Iqna' and al-Muntaha.
Al-Maqdisi did not complete the entire text, and his commentary breaks off in the chapter on fighting rebels (bab qital al-bughah) within the book of prescribed penalties (kitab al-hudud). Despite remaining incomplete, the work was received and cited by later Hanbali scholars, including Ahmad ibn Awad al-Mardawi in Fath Wahhab al-Ma'arib and Ibn Humayd in his supercommentary on Sharh al-Muntaha.
Answer updated
List of Works
Sharh Dalil al-Talib is an intermediate-length legal commentary on the Hanbali primer Dalil al-Talib li-Nayl al-Matalib by Mar'i ibn Yusuf al-Karmi. Employing a concise explanatory style, the commentary blends directly with the phrasing of the base text to form a coherent prose work, providing scriptural evidence and legal rationales alongside complementary branch rulings, definitions, and distinctions between standard late reference works. The work was left incomplete, concluding in the chapter on fighting rebels within the book of penal laws.