Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Abd Allah ibn al-Mubarak (Arabic: عَبْد اللَّه ٱبْن الْمُبَارَك, romanized: ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Mubārak; c. 726–797) was an 8th-century Sunni Muslim scholar and Athari theologian.[4] Known by the title Amir al-Mu'minin fi al-Hadith, he is considered a pious Muslim known for his memory and zeal for knowledge who was a muhaddith and was remembered for his asceticism.[5][6]
Abd Allah Ibn al-Mubarak | |
---|---|
عَبْد اللَّه ٱبْن الْمُبَارَك | |
Personal | |
Born | c. 726 |
Died | 797 (aged 70–71) |
Religion | Islam |
Era | Islamic Golden Age |
Region | Caliphate |
Jurisprudence | Hanafi[1][2] |
Creed | Athari[3] |
Teachers |
His father, named Mubarak, was of Indian[7] or Turkic descent from Khurasan and became a mawla or "client" of an Arab trader from the tribe of Banī Hanẓala in the city of Hamadhān. His mother was said to have been from Khwārizm.[8] Mubarak later married Hind, a trader's daughter.[8] Ibn al-Mubarak was born during the reign of Umayyad caliph Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik.
It is said that ʿAbdullāh left his hometown of Merv, and while living in Hamadhān, went on to visit and speak often in Baghdad.[5] Ahmad ibn Hanbal commented that there was no one more eager to travel to seek knowledge than Abdullah ibn Mubarak. His teachers included Sufyān al-Thawrī and Abū Hanīfa.[9] He wrote Kitāb al-Jihād, a collection of hadīth and sayings of the early Muslims on war, and Kitāb al-Zuhd wa al-Rāqa’iq, a book on asceticism. He was also known for defending Islamic borders (see ribat) on the frontiers of Tarsus and al-Massisah. He died in 797 at Hīt, near the Euphrates, during the reign of Harun al-Rashid.[9][10]
Described as a prolific writer,[11] his works, most are now lost, include:
Hanafi literature, of course, celebrates Ibn al-Mubārak's admiration for, and dependence on, Abū Hanīfa – for example, our earliest extant biographical dictionary of Abū Hanīfa and the Hanafi school includes Ibn al-Mubārak among nine members of the generation of Abū Hanīfa's immediate disciples.
Ibn al-Mubarak may in fact have been a follower of Abū Hanifa's school of law; at the least, his legal reasoning was heavily influenced by Hanafi methodology.