Ibn Umm Qasim al-Muradi
- Died
- 749 AH
- Born in
- Egypt
Hasan ibn Qasim al-Muradi (d. 749 AH / 1348 CE), commonly known as Ibn Umm Qasim, was an Egyptian Maliki jurist, grammarian, and Quranic scholar of Moroccan descent, recognized for his grammatical works, including his commentary Tawdih al-Maqasid wa-al-Masalik and his treatise on particles al-Jana al-Dani fi Huruf al-Maani.
Lineage and Background
His full name was Hasan ibn Qasim ibn Abd Allah ibn Ali al-Muradi, bearing the honorific Badr al-Din and the kunyas Abu Muhammad and Abu Ali. Although his family originated from the coastal city of Safi (Asfi) in the Maghrib, he was born and raised in Egypt.
The exact date of his birth is unrecorded in biographical sources. He acquired the sobriquet "Ibn Umm Qasim" through his close attachment to his paternal grandmother, Zahra', who was known as al-Shaykha for her piety when she immigrated to Egypt from the Maghrib. An alternative report suggests that the title derived from an elite woman connected to the ruling household named Umm Qasim, who took him under her care in his youth due to his virtue and character.
Education and Scholarship
Al-Muradi studied Arabic grammar and philology under several leading scholars of his era, foremost among them Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi, Abu Abd Allah al-Tanji, al-Siraj al-Damnahuri, and Abu Zakariyya al-Ghumari. He studied Maliki jurisprudence under al-Sharaf al-Mughili (also identified as al-Sharaf al-Maliki), legal theory (usul al-fiqh) under Shams al-Din ibn al-Labban, and Quranic recitations (qira'at) under Majd al-Din Isma'il.
He developed expertise spanning Arabic syntax, morphology, Quranic exegesis (tafsir), and jurisprudence. Among his prominent scholarly contributions was Tawdih al-Maqasid wa-al-Masalik, an extensive and influential commentary elucidating the Alfiyya of Ibn Malik. In Arabic semantics and grammar, he authored al-Jana al-Dani fi Huruf al-Maani, a specialized study on Arabic particles whose material was later utilized by Ibn Hisham al-Ansari in his work Mughni al-Labib.
Standing
Biographers characterize al-Muradi as an unmatched authority in his generation across several linguistic and religious disciplines, describing him as deeply pious and righteous. Sources record that he experienced spiritual dreams, including a dream wherein the Prophet ﷺ instructed him: "O Hasan, sit and benefit the people at the mihrab of the Old Mosque of Egypt [the Mosque of Amr ibn al-Aas] next to the Mushaf."
Death
Al-Muradi died on the day of Eid al-Fitr (1 Shawwal) in 749 AH (1348 CE), though another report places his death in 755 AH. He died and was buried at Siryaqus in Egypt.
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Jana al-Dani fi Huruf al-Maani (The Accessible Harvest on Meaning-bearing Particles) is a comprehensive treatise on Arabic particles (huruf al-maani). The book analyzes the grammatical functions, syntactic governance, and semantic roles of particles across Arabic speech, the Quran, and classical poetry.
Tawdih al-Maqasid wa al-Masalik bi Sharh Alfiyyat Ibn Malik (Clarification of the Objectives and Pathways in Commenting on Ibn Malik’s Alfiyya) is an Arabic grammatical commentary explaining the renowned grammatical poem al-Alfiyya by Ibn Malik.