Ibn al-Mawwaq
- Died
- 642 AH
- Born in
- Marrakesh
Ibn al-Mawwaq (583–642 AH / 1187–1244 CE) was a Moroccan Maliki jurist, hadith scholar, and traditionist from Marrakesh, best known for his critical hadith work Bughyat al-Naqqad al-Naqalah .
Lineage and career
His full name was Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr (Abu Yahya) ibn Khalaf ibn Faraj ibn Saf al-Ansari . His family had ancestral origins in Cordoba, while he was born, raised, and educated in Marrakesh, and had ties to Fez .
He was appointed to the judiciary under the Almohad Caliphate, serving as judge (qadi) first in Valencia and subsequently in Fez . He adhered strictly to the Maliki school of jurisprudence in his legal reasoning .
Teachers and students
He received his early education under his father, Abu Bakr ibn Khalaf al-Ansari (d. 599 AH), studying Arabic language, hadith, legal questions, and Quranic exegesis . His primary master in hadith criticism was Ibn al-Qattan al-Fasi, whom he accompanied closely and under whom he studied Bayan al-Wahm wa-al-Iham . Among his other teachers were Abu al-Hasan ibn Qutral, Abu Muhammad ibn Matruh, and Muhammad ibn Ismail ibn Khalfun .
His transmission was preserved by several students, including Abu al-Hasan al-Ru'ayni, the poet Abu Muhammad ibn al-Qasim al-Harrar, and Abu al-Hajjaj Yusuf ibn Ali ibn Ashara al-Salawi, who studied under him while he was in Valencia .
Standing and scholarly focus
Ibn Abd al-Malik al-Marrakushi praised him as a jurist, hafiz, and meticulous hadith scholar who mastered the conditions, biographies, and chronology of narrators, possessing exceptional calligraphy and critical precision . He maintained the traditional practice of direct oral audition and transmission rather than relying solely on written compilation .
His principal scholarly contribution is the critical treatise Bughyat al-Naqqad al-Naqalah (The Quest of Critical Transmitters), also referred to as al-Ma'akhidh al-Hifal, in which he tracked hidden defects (ʿilal) and rectified oversights in Ibn al-Qattan's critical remarks on the legal hadith collection of Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili .
Later biographical works and bibliographers frequently confused him with the Granadan jurist Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Mawwaq (d. 897 AH), the commentator on Mukhtasar Khalil, leading to inaccurate death dates and attributions in reference literature .
Death
Ibn al-Mawwaq died in Marrakesh in 642 AH (1244 CE) .
Answer updated
List of Works
Bughyat al-Naqqad al-Naqalah (The Quest of Critical Transmitters) is a work of Hadith criticism and hidden defects (ʿilal). It serves as a detailed critical commentary and rectification of Ibn al-Qattan al-Fasi's Bayan al-Wahm wa-al-Iham, which itself was a critique of Abd al-Haqq al-Ishbili's legal hadith collection al-Ahkam al-Wusta.