Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi’s biography, fact, career, awards, net worth and life story

For the Egyptian encyclopedist see Shihab al-Din abu ‘l-Abbas Ahmad ben Ali ben Ahmad Abd Allah al-Qalqashandi.

Ahmad ibn al-Qadi or Ibn al-Qadi,(December 18, 1552 – December 6, 1616), fully Shihab al-Din abu l-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Ali ibn ‘Abd er-Rahman ibn Abi’l-‘ Afiyya el-Miknasi ez-Zanati, was the leading writer from Ahmad al-Mansur’s court in Morocco next to Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali. He was also a renowned judge and mathematician.

Biography

Ahmad ibn al-Qadi was born in 1552 in the Ibn al-qadi family. These latter belonged to the Zenata Berber tribal confederation, many of whose descendants were established in Fez and Meknes. The ibn al-qadi family gave birth to distinguished people, who, during the previous centuries, had held high political or religious offices and had become famous as islamic scholars.

Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi studied with Abd al-Wahid al-Sijilmasi, the famous Moroccan mufti and Ahmad Baba al Massufi. The jurisdiction of Salé was assigned to him. At the age of 34 he undertook a journey to the east, but his ship was captured by Christians. Ibn al-Qadi spent eleven months in captivity and was released thanks to sultan Ahmad al-Mansur who paid as ransom the equivalent of 20 thousand ounces of gold.

Works

A number of Ibn al-Qadi’s works survive to this day. His primary panegyric work is entitled Al-Muntaqa al-maqsur ‘ala ma’athir al-khilafat Abi al-Abbas al-Mansur. This work consists mainly of a meditation upon the great character qualities of al-Mansur which, the scholar argues, showed him to be the rightful caliph of Islam. He also composed two collections of biographies of great documentary value: Jadwat al Iqtibas Fi-man halla min al’alam madinata fas (The Torch of learning in the recollection of the most influential notables of the city of Fez) and Durrat al-hidjāl fī asmā’ al-ridjāl.