Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rahbi
- Died
- 577 AH
- Born in
- -
Muhammad ibn Ali al-Rahbi (c. 497–577 AH / 1104–1182 CE) was a Shafi'i jurist and scholar of inheritance law (ilm al-fara'id) from Rahbat Malik ibn Tawq, best known for his didactic poem on estate division, Bughyat al-Bahith an Jumal al-Mawarith (popularly known as al-Rahbiyya) .
Name and Origin
His full name was Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Rahbi . He was commonly known by the moniker Ibn al-Mutqina (and in some sources vocalized as Ibn al-Mutafannina) . His nisba, al-Rahbi, connects him to Rahbat Malik ibn Tawq, a garrison settlement on the Euphrates situated between Damascus and Aleppo .
Education and Scholarly Career
Al-Rahbi pursued studies in Shafi'i jurisprudence under Abu Mansur ibn al-Razzaz al-Baghdadi . He also studied Arabic literature and philology under Abu Mansur al-Jawaliqi . Although he possessed significant literary knowledge and composed poetry, his scholarly reputation was established primarily in jurisprudence and legal inheritance .
He returned to Rahbat Malik ibn Tawq to serve as a resident professor (mudarris) . In Jumada al-Akhira 560 AH, he dictated his celebrated didactic poem on inheritance, Bughyat al-Bahith, to students at the Nuriyya school (al-Madrasa al-Nuriyya) in al-Rahba, noting that he had composed it to facilitate and simplify the essentials of inheritance law . The work, composed in the rajaz poetic meter, became one of the most widely transmitted instructional texts in Islamic legal education . The historian Imad al-Din al-Isfahani met al-Rahbi in his hometown in Muharram 566 AH and recorded literary anecdotes and verses directly from him .
Family and Death
Al-Rahbi had a son, Abu al-Thana Mahmud, who was also an accomplished jurist; Mahmud traveled to Mosul, where he served for a period as deputy judge to Abu Mansur al-Muzaffar ibn Abd al-Qahir al-Shahrazuri before returning to al-Rahba . Al-Rahbi died in al-Rahba in 577 AH (1181–1182 CE) at the age of eighty .
Answer updated
List of Works
Matn al-Rahbiyya, formally titled Bughyat al-Bahith 'an Jumal al-Mawarith, is a classical didactic poem on Islamic inheritance law ('ilm al-fara'id). Composed in the rajaz meter as an urjuza of 175 or 176 verses in standard transmissions (and 144 in an alternative count), it summarizes the rules of estate division according to the Shafi'i school, adhering particularly to the inheritance doctrine of the Companion Zayd ibn Thabit.