For the Egyptian encyclopedist see Shihab al-Din abu 'l-Abbas Ahmad ben Ali ben Ahmad Abd Allah al-Qalqashandi.

Shihab al-Din abu l-‘Abbas Ahmad ibn Mohammed ibn Mohammed ibn Ahmed ibn Ali ibn 'Abd ar-Rahman ibn Abi'l-'Afiyya al-Miknasi az-Zanati (Arabic: ابن القاضي المكناسي), known simply as Ahmad ibn al-Qadi or Ibn al-Qadi (1552/1553–1616), was a Moroccan polygraph. He 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.^[1]

Biography

Ahmad ibn al-Qadi was born in Fez in 1552/1553.^[2] His family was called the Ibn al-Qadi, a Berber family that belonged to the Miknasa tribe, a tribe of the Zenata confederation. Their ancestor was the Miknasi tribal chief, Musa ibn Abi al-Afiya. Several members of this family were established in Fez and Meknes.^[2] 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.^[2]

Works

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

• Al-Muntaqa al-maqsur 'ala ma'athir al-khilafat Abi al-Abbas al-Mansur; his primary work, a panegyric of al-Mansur's great character that qualify him the rightful caliph of Islam.
• Jadwat al Iqtibas Fi-man halla min al'alam madinata fas ('The Torch of learning in the recollection of the most influential notables of the city of Fez')
• Dhīl wafayāt al-'ayān al-musamā<<Durrat al-hidjāl fī asmā’ al-ridjāl>> (ذيل وفيات الأعيان المسمى «درة الحجال فى أسماء الرجال»)^[3] Appendix to obituaries of the notable names.