Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra
Awn al-Din Abu'l-Muzzafar Yahya ibn Hubayra al-Shaybani al-Duri al-Baghdadi (Arabic: أبو المظفر عون الدين يحيي بن هبيرة الشيباني; 1105-1165), commonly referred to as Ibn Hubayra, was a 12th-century Iraqi Arab official and a Hanbali jurist, who served for sixteen years as vizier of the Abbasid Caliphate under Caliph al-Muqtafi, and his successor al-Mustanjid.
Awn al-Din ibn Hubayra | |
|---|---|
| Abbasid Vizier | |
| In office 1149–1165 | |
| Monarchs | Al-Muqtafi, Al-Mustanjid |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1105/06 Dur village, Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate |
| Died | 27 March 1165 Baghdad, Abbasid Caliphate |
| Known for | Hanbali school of jurisprudence, Author of a multi-volume commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim, Author of al-Muqtasad |
Biography
Ibn Hubayra was born on Rabi II 499 A.H. (December 1105 / January 1106 CE) in Dur, a village northwest of Baghdad. As a youth, he went to Baghdad where he received a classical Arabic education under several masters, studying the Qur'an, Arabic linguistics, and the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh).[1] He was appointed as the chief of the treasury by caliph al-Muqtafi, and in 1149, he was appointed as the vizier (chief minister) of the Caliphate, a post he kept for sixteen years until his death on 27 March 1165, commonly attributed to poisoning through his physician, who was in the pay of his rivals.[1]
His vizierate marked the final decline of the Seljuq influence in the Abbasid court (cf. Siege of Baghdad (1157)), and saw a flowering of Hanbali learning in Baghdad. Ibn Hubayra was also involved in the conquest of Fatimid Egypt by Nur ad-Din Zangi.[1]
Works
Ibn Hubayra was also an accomplished scholar. He published a multi-volume commentary on the Sahih al-Bukhari and the Sahih Muslim collections of hadith, entitled al-Ifṣāḥ ‘an ma‘ānĩ'l Ṣiḥāḥ or al-Ishrāf. He also wrote a grammar called al-Muqtaṣaḍ, an abridgment of Ibn al-Sikkit's Iṣlāḥ al-manṭiq, the al-‘Ibādāt al-khams, the Urjūza fi‘l-maqsūr wa‘l-mamdūd, and Urjūza fi ‘ilm al-khaṭṭ.[1] A collection of his sayings was compiled by his contemporary Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi (al-Muqtabas min al-fawā‘id al-‘Awniyya), who also published an anthology from the al-Ifṣāḥ. Ibn al-Jawzi's works are the main source on Ibn Hubayra's life, along with a biography by the Hanbali scholar Ibn al-Maristaniyya[1]
References
- Makdisi (1971), pp. 802–803
Sources
- Makdisi, G. (1971). "Ibn Hubayra". In Lewis, B.; Ménage, V. L.; Pellat, Ch. & Schacht, J. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume III: H–Iram (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. pp. 802–803. OCLC 495469525.