Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi


Ahmad ibn al-Qadi or Ibn al-Qadi,, fully Shihab al-Din abu l-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Ali ibn 'Abd er-Rahman ibn Abi'l-' Afiyya el-Miknasi ez-Zanati, was the leading writer from Ahmad al-Mansur's court in Morocco next to Abd al-Aziz al-Fishtali. He was also a renowned judge and mathematician.

Biography

Ahmad ibn al-Qadi was born in 18 December 1552 in the Ibn al-qadi family. These latter belonged to the Zenata Berber tribal confederation, many of whose descendants were established in Fez and Meknes. The ibn al-qadi family gave birth to distinguished people, who, during the previous centuries, had held high political or religious offices and had become famous as islamic scholars.
Ahmad Ibn al-Qadi studied with Abd al-Wahid al-Sijilmasi, the famous Moroccan mufti and Ahmad Baba al Massufi. The jurisdiction of Salé was assigned to him. At the age of 34 he undertook a journey to the east, but his ship was captured by Christians. Ibn al-Qadi spent eleven months in captivity and was released thanks to sultan Ahmad al-Mansur who paid as ransom the equivalent of 20 thousand ounces of gold.

Works

A number of Ibn al-Qadi's scholarly works survive, including two collections of biographies of great documentary value: