Ibn Abī ʿAṣrūn

▪ Islamic theologian

in full Sharaf ad-Dīn Abū Saʿd ʿAbd Allāh ibn Muḥammad ibn Hibat Allāh ibn Muṭahhar at-Tamīmī al-Mawṣilī ibn Abī ʿAṣrūn, also called al-Ḥalabī or ad-Dimashqī

born February 1099/1100, Ḥadīthah, Baghdad Caliphate

died , October/November 1189, Damascus

      scholar who became a leading Shāfiʿī (one of the four schools of Islamic law) theologian and the chief judicial officer of the Ayyūbid (Ayyūbid dynasty) caliphate.

      After completing his theological training, Ibn Abī ʿAṣrūn held various religious and judicial posts in Iraq. In 1154 he was invited to Damascus by its ruler; he taught religious subjects there and became the administrator of the waqfs (religious endowments). He held numerous other judicial appointments in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey, until in 1177/78 the famous Saladin, the Ayyūbid sultan, appointed him as the Shāfiʿī qāḍī (“judge”) of Syria, the highest judicial appointment in the realm.

      Ibn Abī ʿAṣrūn had to retire because of blindness in 1179/80. During his lifetime six madrasahs (religious colleges) were built in his honour. He wrote a number of works on religious subjects, none of which is extant.

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