AB ISQ SHIB: HIS LIFE AND WORKS Author(s): M. KHALID MAS'UD Reviewed work(s): Source: Islamic Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2 (SUMMER 1975), pp. 145-161 Published by: Islamic Research Institute, International Islamic University, Islamabad Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20846950 . Accessed: 26/04/2012 00:01Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

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ABU ISHAQ SHATIBI: HIS LIFE AND WORKSM. KHALID MAS'UD

whose

fundamental thought, it may be rightly observed, has made contribution to the formulation of the conception of law of many a moder about his

Abu Ishaq Shatibi is one of themost prominent Muslim jurists

of why there should be so little information on such an outstanding jurist. This is followed by a reconstruction, from the avail able data, of the information about his life, his teachers, his disputations the question with other scholars and his works. Sources

It is however unfortunate that very little is world. life. When writing his biography one's attention is particularly drawn to the absence of any data in his contemporary sources known to us. This paper, therefore, first attempts briefly to answer known

nists in the Muslim

To my knowledge Ahmad BabaVwritten about biographical

two hundred years after Shatibi's notice on Shatibl.

(d. 1036/1626) Nayl al-Ibtihapdeath, contains the first

Among his contemporaries Lisan al-DIn Ibn al-Khaflb (d. 776/ (d. 784/1382) wrote at length about Granada and 1374) and Ibn Khaldun Ibn al-Khatlb and Shatibl had com scholars living there in this period. mon teachers3 (and one of the sources even describes Ibn al-Khatib as a

dun would have known Shatibl, nevertheless, neither of these important writers makes mention of Shatibl. Among the authors of the Tabaqat of theMalikls,7 neither Shatibi's Ibn Farhun (d. 799/1369), author of Al-Dibaj al-Mudhah

pupil of Shatibl)4 and common friends.5 Ibn Khaldun wrote a treatise6 It in response to Shatibi's query addressed to the scholars in theWest. would be a reasonable assumption that both Ibn al-Khaflb and Ibn Khal

contemporary hab, nor Badr al-Din al-Qarafi(d. 1008/1599), author of Tawshfb al-Dibaj* the complement of al-Dibaj, mention Shatibi. As Alwnad Baba points out in strong language9, Qarafi lacked sufficientknowledge of the Islamic West. Atunad Baba is not only the first biographer but also an original

146 authority in this respect. Baba's

M. KHALID Almost

MAS'UD

all of the later scholars who have taken

Baba treats of ShatibI in Nyal iwhich as as well in Kifdyat al-Muhttaji al-Ibtihaj supplemented the former. was Baba's written Ahmad inMorocco, where he internment during Nayl taken as a prisoner after the invasion of the Sudan by the Sultan of in 1591. There, Ahmad Baba, though he was without his per collection of sources, was able to use the books in the posession of sonal scholars and in the public libraries.12 Moroccan was Morocco

and depend largely notice of ShatibI belong to the twentieth century,on Ahmad notice. 10 Ahmad

Apart from general considerations, Ahmad Baba's high regard for ShatibI may be suggested as a specific reason why Ahmad Baba mentioned

in thehonorifictitles with which he ShatibI. This esteem is reflectedmentions ShatibI.His regard for ShatibI furthermanifests itselfwhen claim for his master Ibn 'Arafa (d. 803 he disputes Abu llamid Makkl's ples of (Malik!) school to particular cases)."15

generalprinci A.H.)i* as "beingpeerless in tabqlq(the skillof applyingAhmad Baba mentions ShatibI as were in no way lesser than Ibn 'Arafa.16 one example of scholars who Elsewhere he says,

"Among the people of the ninth century(sixteenth) thereare thosewhoassert their attainment of the status of

yafid Ibn MarzQq (d. 842/1438) declined itfor themselves,. It is certain thatbothof themhad more profoundknowledge (ofSharVa and thus (were) more deservingof thisstatus than thosewho claimed it.17 have dwelt long on the question of why Ahmad Baba first took notice of ShatibI while others did not. Let us now discuss Ahmad Baba's We sources for his biography of ShatibI. towards the end of Nayl, the most them being WansharisT,!8 Ahmad Baba used Shatibfs significant among This work seems to consist of Shati own work Al-Ifadat wa'l Inshadat.19 bl's class notes and of anecdotes narrated by his teachers. The extracts Beside Baba in hisNafb al-Tlb and by Ahmad from thiswork, as quoted by al-Maqqari20 must contain that the in indicate considerable information Ifadat Nayl, Baba's in the sources mentioned

ijtihdd, while

Imam

al-Shatibi

and

about Shatibfs

teachers and himself. If that be so, Ahmad formation about ShatibI may be taken as first hand. As

Nayl.

We

to our information in the following pages, it is based mainly on have used the extracts of Ifadat as quoted inNayl and Nqfb

ABU ISHAQ SHATIBIWe

147

The preface in have also used ShatibFs al-Muwafaqat and al-Ftisam. al~rti?am explains the circumstances that shaped ShatibFs thoughts on SharVa and its objectives and as towhy he was accused of 'heresy21. inwhich Shatibi became involved

Al-Muwafaqat refers to the discussions22 with other scholars.

ShatibFsLifeis reported as Abu Ishaq Ibrahim b. Musa b. al-Shatibi. We know virtually nothing about his family or his early life. This latter nisba has misled some sholars tomain tain that Shatibi was born or lived in Shatiba before coming toGranada.23 His al-Lakhmi is not possible because Shatiba was taken by the Christians a few de and, according to the chronicles, the lastMuslims were driven full name

Muhammad

This

cades ago,

out of Shatiba in645/1247.2*

The city had become a centre of learning period for Granada. attracting It is not necessary students and scholars from all parts of North Africa. to list here all the scholars who visited Granada or who were attached to court, names of such scholars being sufficient to illustrate our point. theNasri Education We do not know when and what subjects Shatibi studied. What follows in art account of some of his teachers, from which an idea of his It appears that, according to normal practice, education may be drawn. started his Shatibi training with studies in Arabic language, grammar and literature. In these subjects, he benefited from two masters. He as Ibn Khaldun and Ibn Khatib

Shatibi grew up inGranada and acquired his entire training in this was the capital of the Nasri kingdom. which ShatibFs youth coin city V al-Ghani Billah, a glorious cided with the reign of Sultan Muhammad

Shatibi stayed with him until the latter's death in 754/1353. in Ifdddt illustrate clearly that he re ShatibFs notes about al-Fakhkhar ceived a thorough training inmatters pertaining to theArabic language.26 inAndalus. His second teacher in the Arabic author

b. 'Ali al-Fakhkhar began his studies with Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad al-Biri25 who was known as 'themaster of grammarians' (Shaykh al-Nufydt)

(760/1358), of Hazim.27 He was Maqsura Fe was chief Qa