علماء الخلافScholars of Doctrines Legal Disagreement and Medicine

Scholars of Juristic Disagreement

'Abd Allaah ibn 'Umar ibn 'Eesaa Aboo Zayd al-Daboosee—al-Daboosee, with the daal open and the baa' lightened, an attribution to Daboosa, a town between Bukhaaraa and Samarqand from which a number of men of letters hailed. He was one of the foremost companions of Imaam Aboo Haneefa—may God be pleased with him—and a man by whom proverbial comparisons were made. He was the first person in the world to extract the science of juristic disagreement and bring it into existence.

He wrote Kitaab al-Asraar, Taqweem al-Adilla, and other works and annotations.

It is related that he debated one of the jurists. Whenever Aboo Zayd established an irrefutable argument against him, the man smiled and laughed. Aboo Zayd recited:

Why is it that whenever I bind him with an argument ... He answers me with laughter and loud merriment?

If a man's laughter arises from his jurisprudence ... Then the lizard in the desert is the most learned of all

Al-Dhahabee said: “He was one of those whose skill in reasoning and extracting arguments was proverbial.”

He also wrote Kitaab al-Amad al-Aqsaa.

He died in Bukhaaraa in 430 AH, at the age of sixty-three. Ibn Khallikaan included a brief biographical notice of him.

Aboo al-Fath As'ad ibn Abee Nasr al-Mayhanee, known as Majd al-Deen. He was an outstanding imaam in juristic disagreement and jurisprudence, and he had a famous annotation on the subject.

He studied jurisprudence in Marw, then traveled to Ghazna, where he became renowned and his excellence spread through those lands. al-Ghazzee praised him. He then came to Baghdad, where he was twice entrusted with teaching at the Nidhaamiyya madrasa. People studied under him, benefited from him and from his method of juristic disagreement.

Al-Mayhanee is an attribution to Mayhana, a village of Khaabaraan, a district between Sarakhs and Abeeward in the province of Khuraasaan.

Aboo Haamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-Ghazzaalee, known as Hujjat al-Islaam Zayn al-Deen al-Toosee, a student of the Imaam of the Two Sanctuaries al-Juwaynee. He devoted himself diligently to study until he completed his training in a short time and became one of the eminent figures to whom attention was paid during his teacher's lifetime. He met the vizier Nidhaam al-Mulk, who honored and magnified him, lavishing favor upon him. His name became famous and caravans carried his renown. The people of Iraq admired him and his rank rose among them. He then abandoned everything he had been doing, followed the path of ascetic withdrawal, and set out for the pilgrimage. When he returned, he went to Syria and remained in Damascus for a time, giving instruction. From there he moved to Jerusalem and exerted himself in worship, then stayed for a time in Alexandria. Afterward he returned to his homeland of Toos and devoted himself to his own affairs.

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He composed useful books in several fields, among them Ihyaa' 'Uloom al-Deen, one of the most precious and finest books. He was an imaam in juristic disagreement, the principles of jurisprudence, dialectics, and kalaam. Among his poetry is:

The scorpions of his temple have settled upon his cheek, a moon ... How splendidly they have risen above comparison

We had known him to dwell within its sign ... How wondrous that he should have settled there

And among his other verses:

I would ransom you; were it not for love, you would have ransomed me ... But with the lids of my eyes you have taken me captive

I came to you when my breast was constricted by love ... Had you known my condition, you would have come to me

He was born in 450 AH; it is also said, in 451 AH. He died in 505 AH in al-Taabaraan, the principal town of Toos—may God Most High have mercy upon him.

Aboo 'Abd Allaah Muhammad ibn 'Umar ibn al-Husayn ibn al-Hasan al-Raazee, known as Fakhr al-Deen and as Ibn al-Khateeb, author of the Great Exegesis. He surpassed the people of his age and knew the sciences of the ancients and the moderns. He had useful works in many fields, including his exegesis of the Noble Qur'aan, in which he gathered every strange and unusual matter, so much so that it was said: “It contains everything except exegesis.” It is very large, and in our time it has been printed in Egypt. Ibn Khallikaan said, however, that he did not complete it, and then mentioned some of his works.

He said: “He had a method in juristic disagreement. In the principles of jurisprudence he wrote al-Mahsool fee 'Ilm al-Usool, Nihaayat al-'Uqool fee Diraayat al-Usool, and al-Mataalib al-'Aaliya in kalaam. He had excellent criticisms of the grammarians. All his books are enjoyable, and his works spread throughout the lands. He was granted great good fortune through them, for people occupied themselves with them and abandoned the books of the earlier scholars.”

He was the first to devise this arrangement in his books and to introduce material unprecedented in them. He possessed great power in preaching, and preached in both Arabic and Persian. Ecstasy would overtake him while preaching, and he often wept. In Herat, the leaders of the schools and doctrinal positions attended his assembly and questioned him, and he answered every questioner with the best response. Through him, many of the Karraamiyya and others returned to the doctrine of the Sunnee community. In Herat he was called Shaykh al-Islaam. Scholars came to him from the lands, and travelers set out for him from every region.

He was born in al-Rayy in 544 AH and died in Herat in 606 AH. Ibn Khallikaan said: “I saw a testament that he dictated to one of his disciples during his final illness; it indicates sound belief.” End of quotation. He gave a lengthy account of his biography. May God Most High have mercy upon him.

Aboo Haamid Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad al-'Ameed, Rukn al-Deen, the Hanafee jurist. He was an imaam particularly in the art of juristic disagreement known as al-Jast.

He was the first to devote a separate work to it. Those before him had mixed it with the disagreements of the earlier scholars. He composed a method in this art, which became well known among the jurists. He was noble in character, extremely humble, and pleasant in companionship. He died in 615 AH, fifteen years into the seventh century, in Bukhaaraa.

Aboo Taalib Mahmood ibn 'Alee ibn Abee al-Rajaa' al-Taymee al-Isfahaanee, author of a method in juristic disagreement. He excelled in it and composed the annotation that testified to his excellence, thorough investigation, and superior demonstration in relation to most of his peers. In it he combined jurisprudence with critical verification. He was the principal teacher in delivering lessons on it; many people studied under him, benefited from him, and became renowned scholars. He also possessed great power in preaching, was accomplished in the sciences, and preached in Isfahaan for a long period.

He died in the year 585 AH.

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Scholars of Doctrinal Positions

Aboo al-Fath Muhammad ibn Abee al-Qaasim 'Abd al-Kareem al-Shahrastaanee, author of the book al-Milal wa-al-Nihal.

In it he presented all the sects of religious doctrines in the world. He was a theologian of the Ash'aree school.

He was an outstanding imaam, a jurist, and a theologian.

He studied jurisprudence with Ahmad al-Khawaafee, Aboo Nasr al-Qushayree, and others, and excelled in jurisprudence.

He studied kalaam with Aboo al-Qaasim al-Ansaaree and became an authority in it. He composed Nihaayat al-Iqdaam fee 'Ilm al-Kalaam, al-Manaahij wa-al-Bayaan, and Kitaab al-Mudhaara'a wa-Talkhees al-Aqsaam li-Madhaahib al-Anaam.

He had a large store of memorized material, was good at conversation, and preached to the people.

He entered Baghdad in 510 AH and remained there for three years. He won considerable acceptance among the common people. He heard hadeeth from 'Alee ibn Ahmad al-Madeenee in Neeshaapoor and from others. The hadeeth master Aboo Sa'd 'Abd al-Kareem al-Sam'aanee wrote down his transmissions.

He was born in 467 AH, or in 479 AH, in Shahrastaan, and died there at the end of Sha'baan in 548 AH, or in 549 AH.

Shahrastaan is the name of three cities:

The first is Shahrastaan of Khuraasaan, between Neeshaapoor and Khwaarazm, at the farthest boundary of Khuraasaan and the beginning of the sands adjoining the region of Khwaarazm. It is the famous one, and Aboo al-Fath mentioned above came from it. It produced many scholars—may God have mercy upon them.

The second is Shahrastaan, the principal town of the Saaboor district in the land of Faars.

The third is the city of Jayy in Isfahaan. Its meaning is “the city of the district,” a non-Arabic expression.

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Scholars of Medicine

Hippocrates the physician: the first to record the science of medicine. He was a famous philosopher devoted to certain philosophical sciences, the foremost natural philosopher of his age. He lived approximately one hundred years before Alexander. He wrote noble works on medicine. He was a virtuous, godly ascetic who treated the sick in hope of reward, traveling throughout the lands. He lived in the time of Ardasheer, one of the Persian kings, and resided in Hims, one of the cities of Syria. He would travel to Damascus and remain in its groves for spiritual exercise, study, and teaching; in its gardens was a place known as Hippocrates' Sifa. He was a virtuous, complete physician and philosopher, a teacher of all things, and powerful in his craft, reasoning, and experience.

When he feared that medicine might vanish from the world, he taught medicine to foreigners and treated them as his children. Hippocrates appeared in the year 96 according to the era of Bukht Nassar, that is, 14 AH in the reign of Bahraam. He lived ninety-five years and left useful books explained in Arabic.

Galen the physician: the Greek natural philosopher, who appeared after Hippocrates, from Pergamon in the land of the Greeks. He was the foremost physician of his age and the chief natural philosopher of his time. He authored magnificent books on medicine and other subjects, including natural philosophy and demonstrative science. His works number more than sixty. He lived approximately two hundred years after Christ—peace be upon him—and more than five hundred years after Alexander. After Aristotle, none is known to have been more learned in natural philosophy than these two, Hippocrates and Galen. It is said that he came from the land of Asia, east of Constantinople, during the reign of the sixth Caesar. He traveled through the lands and excelled in medicine, philosophy, and mathematics at the age of seventeen. He renewed the science of Hippocrates and surpassed others in anatomy. His father was the most learned surveyor of his time. He was a Christian. He died in the city of Sultaaniyya, where he was buried, and lived eighty-eight years. Each day he required himself to read a portion of philosophy. He accepted nothing from kings and did not associate with them. Were it not for him, knowledge and study would not have survived, and their entirety would have disappeared from the world; instead, he restored their structure, explained their obscurities, and made their difficult matters accessible. Philosophers lived in his time whose memory perished beside his, and leadership in his age came to rest with him.

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Aboo Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyyaa al-Raazee: one of the celebrated scholars of medicine, the unrivaled physician of the Muslims. He excelled in logic, geometry, and other philosophical sciences. In his youth he played the lute and sang, then turned to learning philosophy and studying medical books. He acquired a great deal of it and read them as a critical investigator of their authors, reaching the utmost depth in understanding their hidden aspects. He accepted what was sound and diagnosed what was unsound. He was the imaam of his age in medicine and its acknowledged authority in that era. He was exacting in this craft, skilled in it, and thoroughly acquainted with its principles and laws; people traveled to him to learn it. He wrote books, most of them on medicine. He went deeply into the divine sciences, but his purpose was not understood; he adopted foolish opinions and weak doctrines. He directed the hospital of al-Rayy, then the hospital of Baghdad during the days of al-Muktafee. He became blind at the end of his life and died in 311 AH.

He was asked: “If only you would have your eyes treated!” He replied: “No; I have seen enough of the world to grow weary.” He was highly skilled in alchemy and said that it was closer to the possible than to the impossible. He wrote twelve books on it. He was generous, charitable, kind to people, and deeply compassionate toward the poor. He never ceased copying manuscripts, whether making a first copy or a fair copy. His works number 116 books and epistles on medicine and philosophy, all useful in their respective fields. God knows best.

Among his sayings is: “Whenever you can treat with foods, do not treat with medicines; and whenever you can treat with a single medicine, do not treat with a compound medicine.”

He said: “When the physician is learned and the patient obedient, how brief is the illness's stay!” He also said: “Treat the illness at its beginning with that which does not cause strength to fall away.” He remained the leading authority in this field. He began studying it late in life; it is said that when he started, he was more than forty years old. He lived a long life.

'Alee ibn Abee al-Hazm 'Alaa' al-Deen ibn al-Nafees, the Egyptian physician, author of al-Moojaz fee al-Tibb, a commentary on the Kulliyyaat of the Canon, and other works.

He was a jurist of the Shaafi'ee school. He composed a commentary on al-Tanbeeh and, in medicine, a work beyond those already mentioned called al-Shaamil. It is said that, had he completed it, it would have comprised three hundred volumes; eighty volumes were completed.

He also wrote on the principles of jurisprudence and logic.

In sum, he participated in the various sciences. As for medicine, there was no one on earth like him in his age. It is said that no one like him came after Ibn Seenaa. They said that in treatment he was greater than Ibn Seenaa, and that his teacher in medicine was the shaykh Muhadhdhab

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al-Deen. He died in 687 AH at approximately eighty years of age. He left abundant wealth and endowed his books and properties to the Mansooree hospital.

Aboo Ya'qoob Ishaaq ibn Hunayn al-'Ibaadee: the famous physician. He was unparalleled in his age in the science of medicine, and he knew the philosophical books that the Greeks had translated into Arabic. He had useful works on medicine. He was afflicted by paralysis at the end of his life and died in 398 AH.

Al-'Ibaadee is an attribution to the 'Ibaad of al-Heera, several branches of various tribes who settled in al-Heera. They were Christians, and many people were attributed to them. al-Heera was an ancient city belonging to the Banoo al-Mundhir.

Aboo Zayd Hunayn ibn Ishaaq al-'Ibaadee: the famous physician. He was the leading physician of his age and had complete knowledge of the language of the Greeks. He was the one who translated Euclid's book into Arabic; Thaabit ibn Qurra then revised and refined it, as he did the Almagest.

He had useful medical works. His son Ishaaq was mentioned earlier, and al-Ma'moon was passionately devoted to translating these works.

The Greeks were philosophers who lived before Islam. They were the descendants of Yoonaan ibn Yaafith ibn Nooh.

Hunayn died in 260 AH.

Aboo al-Hasan Hibat Allaah ibn Abee al-Ghanaa'im ibn al-Tilmeedh: the Baghdadi physician. 'Imaad al-Isfahaanee mentioned him in al-Khareeda, saying: “The sultan of the philosophers and the world's destination in medicine; the Hippocrates of his age and the Galen of his time. Through him this science reached its culmination. Among the earlier men, no one reached his level in medicine. He lived long and nobly.” I saw him as an old man, handsome in appearance and pleasing in aspect, sweet to behold and approach, gentle in spirit, elegant in person, far-reaching in aspiration, lofty in ambition, quick of mind, sound in judgment, decisive in opinion—the Christian shaykh, priest, head, and leader. He had remarkable words in verse, honeyed sweetness, and splendid abundance.

There was mutual alienation and rivalry between him and Aboo al-Barakaat Hibat Allaah ibn 'Alee, the famous philosopher and author of al-Mu'tabar fee al-Hikma, as commonly occurs among people of every excellence and craft. They had well-known disputes and assemblies concerning this. He was Jewish, then converted to Islam at the end of his life. He was afflicted with leprosy and treated himself by applying snakes to his body after starving them; they attacked him fiercely, and he was cured of the leprosy, though he became blind. His story is famous.

Ibn al-Tilmeedh had fine works on medicine, including Aqraabaadheen and marginalia on Ibn Seenaa's Kulliyyaat.

He died in 560 AH in Baghdad, having nearly reached one hundred years of age. He died on a Christian holiday.

Aboo 'Alee Yahyaa ibn 'Eesaa ibn Jazla: the physician, author of Kitaab al-Minhaaj, in which he gathered a great deal concerning the names of herbs, drugs, medicines, and other matters.

He was initially a Christian, then converted to Islam. He composed an epistle refuting the Christians, exposing the defects of their doctrines, praising Islam, and establishing the proof that it is the true religion. In it he mentioned what he had read in the Torah and Gospel concerning the appearance of the Prophet—peace and blessings be upon him—that he was a prophet sent by God, and that the Jews and Christians had concealed this and did not make it known. He then mentioned the faults of the Jews and Christians. It is a fine epistle in which he excelled. He was among the celebrated figures in the science and practice of medicine. He treated the people of his neighborhood and his acquaintances without charge, brought them drinks and medicines without compensation, cared for the poor, and treated them well. Before his death he endowed his books and placed them in the shrine of Aboo Haneefa—may God have mercy upon him. He died in 493 AH. May God forgive him.

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