Quick Facts
Biography
Ibn Marzuq (full name: Shams al-Din Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-ʿAjisi al-Tilimsani, also known as al-Khatib (the preacher) or al-Jadd (the grandfather) or al-rais (the leader); c. 1310–1379) was a prominent Moroccan scholar of the 14th century.
Biography
He was born around 1310 in Tlemcen and travelled in his late teens to the east, where he travelled and studied with a group of around 250 scholars for fifteen years. He returned to Morocco as an faqih, or expert in Islamic law. The Marinid sultan of Morocco, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman, appointed Ibn Marzuq to the position of preacher at the al-ʿUbbad mosque in his native Tlemcen.
Ibn Marzuq subsequently became the sultan's advisor, teacher and secretary and was given an important diplomatic role, negotiating with rulers in Algeria and Spain. He was responsible for negotiating a peace treaty between Morocco and the King of Castile, Alphonse XI. However, he fell foul of the new sultan Abu Inan Faris after intriguing against him and was forced to flee to the Moorish Kingdom of Granada in Spain, where he was offered the position of khatib (sermon-giver) at the Alhambra.
He eventually returned to Fez, then the capital of Morocco, and was reconciled with the sultan. He was again given a high position which he held until the disastrous failure of a diplomatic mission led to him being imprisoned for six years between 1352–58. Soon after his release, he moved to Tunis, then the capital of the Hafsid dynasty, where he was offered a high position by Abu Salim Ibrahim. He remained there until 1372, when he retired to Cairo for the last seven years of his life to serve as Grand Qadi.
Works
Ibn Marzuq is known for his works of legal, religious and historical scholarship. Among his most notable is his 1371 hagiographical history of the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan. The book emphasizes Ibn Marzuq's own role in al-Hasan's reign; he evidently sought to burnish his own achievements for his self-aggrandizement. Titled The Correct and Fine Traditions About the Glorious Deeds of our Master Abu 'l-Hasan (Musnad as-sahid al-hasan fi maʿathir mawlana Abi 'l Hasan), the book also provides a wealth of detail on the customs, culture, politics and administration of mid-14th century Morocco.
He also wrote a kitâb al-imâma, a definition of the Islamic caliphate and discussion of political and governmental principles, as well as an extremely voluminous fahrasa (list of teachers) which, unusually, includes a number of learned women.