al-Khiraqi
- Died
- 334 AH
- Born in
- Baghdad
Abu al-Qasim al-Khiraqi (d. 334 AH / 946 CE) was a Baghdad-born jurist of the Hanbali school, best known for his legal primer Mukhtasar al-Khiraqi .
Life and travels
His full name was 'Umar ibn al-Husayn ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Ahmad, and he was known by the kunya Abu al-Qasim . The nisba al-Khiraqi derived from the trade of selling cloth and garments . He was born and raised in Baghdad, though the exact year of his birth is unrecorded .
Al-Khiraqi left Baghdad and traveled to Damascus following the public emergence of reviling the Prophet's Companions in the capital . Before his departure, he deposited his writings in a residence in the Darb Sulayman quarter of Baghdad . A fire subsequently destroyed the house, and his deposited books perished, preventing their wider transmission; another account noted that the house burned but the books were spared . His primary surviving work, Mukhtasar al-Khiraqi, was counted by Abu Ishaq al-Barmaki at 2,300 legal rulings .
Teachers and students
Al-Khiraqi studied jurisprudence under his father, Abu 'Ali al-Husayn ibn 'Abd Allah al-Khiraqi, who had accompanied leading students of Ahmad ibn Hanbal, particularly Abu Bakr al-Marrudhi . He also received knowledge from those who studied directly under al-Marrudhi, Harb al-Kirmani, and Ahmad ibn Hanbal's two sons, Salih and 'Abd Allah, and transmitted reports from Abu al-Fadl ibn 'Abd al-Sami' al-Hashimi .
Those who studied under him and transmitted from him included Ibn Battah, Abu al-Hasan al-Tamimi, Abu al-Husayn ibn Sam'un, and 'Abd Allah ibn 'Uthman al-Saffar .
Standing and death
Al-Qadi Abu Ya'la praised al-Khiraqi as an erudite scholar accomplished in Hanbali jurisprudence, characterized by strict piety and religious devotion . Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi described him as virtuous, pious, and an eloquent writer .
Al-Khiraqi died in Damascus in 334 AH (946 CE), though an isolated report mentioned Baghdad as the place of death . Ibn Battah related that his death resulted from a severe beating he received after forbidding an objectionable act in Damascus . He was buried outside the Bab al-Saghir cemetery in Damascus near the al-Jarrah Mosque, where his grave became well known and was visited by scholars, including Ibn Battah and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi .
Answer updated
List of Works
Mukhtasar al-Khiraqi is a legal manual of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence, recognized as the earliest concise primer compiled in unmixed Hanbali jurisprudence (al-fiqh al-mujarrad).