Thabat Abi Jafar Ahmad ibn Ali
- Author died
- 938 AH
- Editions
- Dar al-Gharb al-Islami
Thabat Abi Jafar Ahmad ibn Ali is a catalogue of scholarly transmissions (thabat) compiled by the Andalusian scholar Abu Jafar al-Balawi (d. 938 AH / 1531–1532 CE) . The work documents the author's teachers, received texts, and chains of transmission (asānīd) across Granada, North Africa, and the broader Islamic world during the final period of Muslim rule in al-Andalus .
Author and Background
The author, Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Dawud al-Balawi al-Wadi Ashi al-Andalusi, describes the work at its beginning as an inventory containing the names of his teachers and the works he studied under them . Al-Balawi studied in Granada before leaving al-Andalus with his brothers after 890 AH for Tlemcen, continuing his education among Maghrebi scholars before traveling to the East .
Content and Structure
The book is structured around biographical and bibliographic entries dedicated to al-Balawi's instructors, detailing what he read directly before them, attended in their teaching circles, or received through formal authorization (ijāza):
- Granadan Teachers: The author records that the first teacher he studied under in Granada was the mathematician and jurist al-Qalasadi (Ali ibn Muhammad al-Qurashi), from whom he learned arithmetic (ʿilm al-ʿadad) and the law of inheritance (farāʾiḍ) . He also records reading al-Zajjaji's al-Jumal and Abu Ali al-Farisi's al-Īḍāḥ with Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Sulami al-Jadala at the Great Mosque of Granada and the Nasrid Madrasa (al-Madrasa al-Naṣriyya) , as well as al-Jumal and al-Khazrajiyya in prosody with Abu Muhammad Abd Allah al-Jabiri al-Zay'aji .
- Maghrebi Transmissions: In Tlemcen, al-Balawi studied Quranic exegesis (Tafsīr of Surat al-Araf), portions of Sahih Muslim, Ibn al-Hajib's works, al-Tahdhīb, Ibn Hisham al-Ansari's Mughnī al-Labīb, and al-Mubarrad's al-Kāmil under Abu Abd Allah al-Tanasi at the Ya'qubiyya Madrasa and his mosque . Under Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Zakri, he read portions of Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, the Thulāthiyyāt of al-Bukhari, and the Muwatta of Malik at the Grand Mosque of Tlemcen . He also studied under Sidi Abd al-Jabbar al-Fajiji, who granted him an ijāza for Sahih al-Bukhari, Sahih Muslim, and al-Qadi Iyad's al-Shifāʾ in Rajab 895 AH .
Appended Certificates and Transmissions
The text documents historical movements and scholarly networks at the end of the 9th century AH. The author records his departure from Oran on Saturday, 12 Dhu al-Qi'da 896 AH (16 September 1491 CE) . The collection includes appended certificates, notably a grant of transmission titled Kitāb al-Taʿallul bi-rusūm al-isnād baʿda intiqāl ahl al-manzil wa-l-nād, received in Tlemcen on Friday, 4 Shawwal 896 AH (10 August 1491 CE) . It also records the epistolary requests for ijāza sent by the Balawi family to the scholars of Fez, including the response written by Ibn Ghazi al-Miknasi .
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