Ibn Atiyya
1088 CE–1146 CE · Granada
Abu Muhammad Abd al-Haqq ibn Ghalib ibn Atiyya al-Gharnati was a scholar of al-Andalus (Muslim Spain) best remembered for one of the most respected medieval commentaries (tafsir) on the Qur'an. He was born in Granada in 481 AH (1088 CE) into a learned family; his father, himself a noted scholar of hadith (reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds) and law, served as a judge in Granada. Ibn Atiyya studied with his father and with many teachers across the cities of al-Andalus, and biographers describe him as a jurist, grammarian, and litterateur.
He followed the Maliki school of law (madhhab) and, in theology, the Ash'ari approach. He was appointed qadi (judge) of Almeria and later of Murcia, where tradition praises his concern for justice. Sources also report that he took part in campaigns of his day, though details are thin.
His fame rests on al-Muharrar al-Wajiz fi Tafsir al-Kitab al-Aziz, a sober, verse-by-verse commentary attentive to grammar, language, and legal rulings. It drew heavily on the earlier eastern commentary of al-Tabari, and was in turn quarried by later masters, most famously al-Qurtubi (d. 671/1272-73), as well as Abu Hayyan al-Gharnati and al-Tha'alibi. He died at Lorca; the year is disputed in the sources, most often given as 541 AH (1146 CE) but also 542 or 545.
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GranadaגרנדהAl-Andalus, Spain
What they did here
Born in Granada in 481 AH (1088 CE) into a scholarly family; his father, a hadith scholar and jurist, served as a judge in Granada. Ibn Atiyya received his first training there and in the learning centers of al-Andalus.
About Granada
Granada is a city in Andalusia, southern Spain, at the foot of the Sierra Nevada. It became a major city of al-Andalus in the 11th century as capital of the Zirid taifa kingdom, where the Jewish statesman and poet Samuel ibn Naghrillah served as grand vizier; a massacre of the city's Jews followed in 1066. From the 13th century Granada was capital of the Nasrid emirate, the last Muslim-ruled state in Iberia, whose rulers built the Alhambra and whose court attracted Muslim scholars. The Catholic Monarchs took the city in 1492, and it became Christian over the 16th century; the Carmelite John of the Cross was prior of a monastery there and wrote major works in Granada.
Across the traditions, in Granada at the same time
In the same place & time
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Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
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