Muhammad ibn al-Uqbani

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Qasim al-Uqbani (d. 871 AH / 1467 CE) was a Maliki jurist, judge, and author from Tlemcen, best known for his treatise on public oversight and morals, Tuhfat al-nazir wa-ghunyat al-dhakir fi hifz al-sha‘a’ir wa-taghyir al-manakir Mujam Alam al-Jazair+1.

Early Life and Education

Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Qasim ibn Sa‘id al-Uqbani belonged to a prominent scholarly family of Tujibi descent whose nisba traces back to ‘Uqban, a village in al-Andalus Shajarat al-Nur al-Zakiyy…+1. He was born and raised in Tlemcen, where he pursued his initial Islamic education under its local scholars, studying foremost under his grandfather, the Maliki jurist and judge Qasim ibn Sa‘id al-Uqbani Mujam Alam al-Jazair+1. He later journeyed to the East, where he performed the Hajj pilgrimage before returning to his hometown Mujam Alam al-Jazair+1.

Career and Students

Following his return, al-Uqbani served as chief community judge (qadi al-jama‘a) in Tlemcen Mujam Alam al-Jazair+1. After he was dismissed from the judicial office, his paternal uncle Abu Salim Ibrahim ibn Qasim al-Uqbani assumed the judgeship Mujam Alam al-Jazair.

As a teacher, al-Uqbani instructed several prominent figures, among them the legal scholar Ahmad al-Wansharisi—who referred to him as his revered shaykh and judge—and Ahmad ibn Hatim Nayl al-Ibtihaj bi-Tatriz…+1.

Scholarly Standing and Death

Al-Uqbani was recognized among the major Maliki jurists of his era and also maintained an active engagement with Arabic literature Mujam Alam al-Jazair. The Sufi scholar Ahmad Zarruq praised his expertise in judicial jurisprudence, recording in his notebook that al-Uqbani was an expert jurist regarding applied legal cases (nawazil) who possessed a deep grounding in Sufism Nayl al-Ibtihaj bi-Tatriz…. His major surviving composition, Tuhfat al-nazir wa-ghunyat al-dhakir fi hifz al-sha‘a’ir wa-taghyir al-manakir ("The Spectator's Gift and the Rememberer's Sufficiency in Preserving Rites and Rectifying Wrongdoings"), was written to detail the legal obligations and boundaries of market oversight (hisbah) and commanding right and forbidding wrong Mujam Alam al-Jazair+1.

Al-Uqbani died in Tlemcen on 23 Dhu al-Hijjah 871 AH (July 1467 CE); another report cited by al-Sakhawi places his death in 866 AH Mujam Alam al-Jazair+1.