Sayf al-Din al-Amidi

Sayf al-Din al-Amidi (also known as Muhammad al-Amidi) (1156 Diyarbakır - 1233 Damascus) was an influential jurist of the Shafi`i school who worked to combine kalam (theology) with existing methods of jurisprudence.

Al-Amidi was first instructed in fiqh and Hanbali law in his home of Amid in eastern Anatolia. At a young age al-Amidi traveled to Baghdad to join the learning circle of the famous Shafi teacher Ibn Fadlan. In Baghdad al-Amidi focused his studies on theoretical jurisprudence and he transferred from the Shafi school from the Hanbali school. Along with the influence of Ibn Fadlan al-Amidi was prompted to join the Shafi school due to his interest in Ash’ari theology. While in Baghdad al-Amidi also studied philosophy from a Christian tutor. He received much criticism for his studies since philosophy was not in favor with Muslim scholars of the time. He moved to Syria in search of a more hospitable environment but continued on to Egypt after encountering the same difficulties. Al-Amidi rose to fame in Egypt yet attempts by his peers to vilify him because of his use of heretical, rationalist, methods prompted him to move once more. He moved to Damascus where he produced his most famous works on Islamic jurisprudence Al-ihkam fi usul al-ahkam (the Inkam) and the Muntaha. He remained in Syria until his death.

He was accused of heresy because of his interest in philosophy. In one case Al-Amidi defended philosophical doctrine against the criticism of well known Ash’ari theologian Fakhr al-Din al Razi. He also had interest in pre-theoretic belief, creating A Treatise on the Division of Theoretical Scholarship, to explain the difference between pre-theoretic and theoretic belief.

al-Amidi believed that an expression was amm (universal) if it was “a single vocable that signifies two or more referents simultaneously”. An objection to this teaching was that it implied at least two affected by the injunction, which created doubt about how the injunction would apply to a single person.

al-Amidi defined ijtihad as the “total expenditure of effort in search for an opinion as to any legal rule in such a manner that the individual senses (within himself)an inability to expend further effort” . His work, A Treatise on Book Titles, he writes on existence, and how time and place are associated with existence. al-Amidi also wrote about linguistics. On Substantiation Through Transitive Relations discusses figurative speech in the first two sections. The second section talks about analogies and transitive relations. The last section covers existence. A copy of this, and at least three of al-Amidi's works were re-published in 1805 by an unknown publisher. They are held in the collection of the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts at the University Library in Bratislava.