Yūsuf ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Barr, Abū ʿUmar al-Namarī al-Andalusī al-Qurṭubī al-Mālikī, commonly known as Ibn ʿAbd al-Barr was an eleventh-century Maliki scholar and Athari theologian who served as the Qadi of Lisbon. He died in December 2, 1071.

Biography

Ibn 'Abd al-Barr was born in 978 and died in 1071 in Xàtiva in Al-Andalus. According to Ibn Khallikan, Ibn Abd al-Barr sprung from the Arabian tribe of Namr ibn Qasit. While initially having been an adherent of the Zahiri school of Muslim jurisprudence, Ibn Abd al-Barr later switched to the Maliki school, which was the officially recognized legal code of the Umayyad dynasty, under which he lived. His book on the three great Sunni jurists Malik ibn Anas, Al-Shafi'i and Abu Hanifa noticeably excluded both his former patron Dawud al-Zahiri and Ahmad ibn Hanbal. Ibn 'Abd al-Barr represented the traditionalist strand of the Maliki school. He is often referred to as the "Bukhari of the West." Ibn Abd al-Barr was a supporter of taqlid, or following an Islamic school of jurisprudence. Ibn Abd al-Barr wrote in his book, Jami' Bayan al-'Ilm wa Fadlihi: "The scholars do not differ on the point that the laymen must make Taqlid their respective Imams. They are the ones meant by the verse of the Quran in al-Nahl, ... Similarly, the scholars do not differ on the point that the laymen are not permitted to give religious verdicts." A custodian of the royal libraries the Umayyad Caliphate in Cordoba patronized, he taught in the Grand Mosque of Cordoba and its attached colleges.

Works

Some of his works include: