Qadi al-Nu'man
903 CE–974 CE · Kairouan
Al-Nu'man ibn Muhammad, known as al-Qadi al-Nu'man ("the judge al-Nu'man"), was the foremost jurist of the Fatimid caliphate, the Isma'ili Shia dynasty that ruled North Africa and later Egypt. He was born in Qayrawan (in present-day Tunisia); his exact birth year is unknown, with estimates ranging from around 896/897 to around 290 AH/903 CE. According to the sources, he came from a family of Maliki Sunni scholars in Qayrawan and was raised within the Isma'ili tradition after his father embraced it. (Isma'ilis are a branch of Shia Islam; the Fatimids claimed leadership, the imamate, through the Prophet's descendants.)
He entered Fatimid service around 313 AH/925 CE and served the dynasty's first four imam-caliphs for roughly fifty years. He was made a judge—first, it is reported, at Tripoli—and then, under the caliph al-Mansur, was appointed chief judge (qadi al-qudat) over Ifriqiya; the caliph al-Mu'izz later confirmed him in that post and entrusted him with hearing grievances (mazalim) and with teaching closed "sessions of wisdom" on Isma'ili doctrine.
His most famous work, the Da'a'im al-Islam ("The Pillars of Islam"), became the official law code of the Fatimid state and remains the principal authority for the law of the Musta'li (Tayyibi) Isma'ilis—including the Bohra communities—to this day. He also wrote on history, doctrine, and the inner interpretation (ta'wil) of scripture. He accompanied al-Mu'izz to the newly founded city of Cairo and died there in 363 AH/974 CE; the sources report that the caliph himself led his funeral prayer.
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KairouanקירואןIfriqiya (Tunisia)
What they did here
Al-Nu'man was born in Qayrawan, the principal city of Fatimid Ifriqiya, reportedly into a family of Maliki Sunni scholars. The birth year is uncertain; estimates range from c. 896/897 to around 290 AH/903 CE. He was raised in the Isma'ili tradition and entered Fatimid service there around 313 AH/925 CE.
About Kairouan
Kairouan, in central Tunisia, was founded around 670 by the Arab commander Uqba ibn Nafi and grew around its Great Mosque into one of the chief centres of Islamic learning in North Africa. It was the capital of the Aghlabids (800-909); the Fatimids, who overthrew them, moved their capital elsewhere, and the Zirids later revived the city until the Banu Hilal sacked it in 1057. Kairouan also had a major Jewish community, a centre of Talmudic scholarship into the eleventh century, where Chananel ben Chushiel and Nissim ben Jacob led the academy and bridged the late Geonim and the early Rishonim. The physician Ibn al-Jazzar also worked there. Its old city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Across the traditions, in Kairouan at the same time
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Qadi al-Nu'man’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
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