Ibn Marzuq (full name: Shams al-Din Abu ʿAbd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr al-ʿAjisi al-Tilimsani, also known as al-Khatib (the Preacher) or al-Jadd (the Grandfather) or al-Rais (the Leader); c. 1310–1379) was a prominent the 14th century scholar from Tlemcen.
He was born around 1310 in Tlemcen and travelled in his late teens to the orient, where he studied with a group of around 250 scholars for fifteen years. He returned to the Maghreb as a faqih, or expert in Islamic law. The Marinid sultan, Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Othman, appointed Ibn Marzuq to the position of preacher at the al-ʿUbbad mosque in his native Tlemcen.[1]
Ibn Marzuq subsequently became the sultan's advisor, teacher and secretary and was given an important diplomatic role, negotiating with rulers in Algeria and Spain, where he concluded a peace treaty with the King of Castile, Alphonse XI. On the death of Abu al-Hasan, he returned to Tlemcen, where he engaged in intrigue against the new Marinid sultan Abu Inan Faris, before fleeing to Spain, where he was offered the position of khatib (sermon-giver) at the great mosque al-Hamra in Granada.[1]
He was recalled to Fez, where he held a high position until the disastrous failure of a diplomatic mission to Spain led to him being imprisoned for six years. Soon after his release in 1358, he moved to Tunis, where he was offered a high position by Abu Salim Ibrahim. He remained there until 1372, when he retired to Cairo for the last seven years of his life to serve as Grand Qadi.[1]
Ibn Marzuq is known for his works of legal, religious and historical scholarship. Among his most notable is his 1371 hagiographical history of the Marinid sultan Abu al-Hasan. The book emphasizes Ibn Marzuq's own role in al-Hasan's reign; he evidently sought to burnish his own achievements for his self-aggrandizement.[1] Titled The Correct and Fine Traditions About the Glorious Deeds of our Master Abu 'l-Hasan (Musnad as-sahid al-hasan fi maʿathir mawlana Abi 'l Hasan), the book discusses the qualities of the sultan, his court, and the works undertaken during his reign. [2] A Spanish translation was published in 1977 by the Instituto Hispano-Arabe de Cultura, as El Musnad: Hechos memorables de Abu l-Hasan, sultan de los benimerines.
He also wrote a kitâb al-imâma, a definition of the Islamic caliphate and discussion of political and governmental principles, as well as an extremely voluminous fahrasa (list of teachers) which, unusually, includes a number of learned women.[1]
His work Miftah al-Wusul was recently translated into English by Professor Mohammad S. Alrahawan and was published in 2020 by Peter Lang/ International Academic Publishers.
