Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī
Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī was an influential Islamic scholar and reformist from the 15th century, primarily associated with the Tlemcen region in present-day Algeria. Born into an era when the Zayyanid dynasty ruled Tlemcen, known for its historical significance in Islamic learning, al-Maghīlī's education was shaped by prominent figures such as ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Tha‘ālibī and Ibn Yadir. His early exposure to Islamic law and the concept of hisba (regulation of public morals) significantly influenced his later work. Al-Maghīlī moved to Tamantit, where he became known for advocating strict adherence to Islamic laws, particularly regarding the status of non-Muslims, which led to notable tensions with Jewish communities in the region.
His extensive travels across the Sahara, especially to the Hausa states of Kano and Katsina and the Songhai Empire, allowed him to engage with and influence various Islamic practices and governance structures. Al-Maghīlī's notable works included texts that addressed statecraft and Islamic ethics, which underscored the importance of justice and moral conduct within Islamic society. His legacy is marked by his role in bridging the traditions of North African Islam with the evolving practices of sub-Saharan Muslim communities, contributing to the broader Islamic discourse of his time.
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Subject Terms
Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī
Muslim religious leader
- Born: c. 1440
- Birthplace: Tlemcen (now in Algeria)
- Died: Between 1503 and 1506
- Place of death: Tamantit (now in Algeria)
Al-Maghīlī was a major figure in the movement of classical Sunni Islam from North Africa to other African states. He corrected what he believed were violations of Islamic law by non-Muslims, particularly Jews. The corpus of his writings represents how Islamic culture migrated from one major ethnic and cultural region to another.
Early Life
Very little is known about the early life of Muḥammad ibn ՙAbd al-Karīm al-Maghīlī (moh-KAWM-mawd ib-ehn ehb-dawl-kaw-REEM ahl-mawg-EEL-ee). The place in which he was born had been for several centuries a recognized seat of Islamic learning. Tlemcen was tied, symbolically at least, to the Qādirīyah Sufi tradition in Islam, which harks back to its twelfth century founderՙAbd al-Qādir al-Jīlānī (d. 1166).
During al-Maghīlī’s early life in Tlemcen, reigning authority was held by the Zayyanids, Berber successors to the prominent Almohad Dynasty seated in Marrakech (now Morocco). Whereas the Almohads had represented a rigorous Islamic reformist policy, the Zayyanids seem to have been much less involved in religious affairs and were mainly concerned with maintaining regional political hegemony.
Al-Maghīlī’s primary teacher wasՙAbd al-Raḥmān al-Tha՚ālabī (d. 1470), who was at that time established in Tunis, capital of the Ḥafṣid Dynasty, another successor to earlier Almohad rule. Another teacher who left a strong impression on al-Maghīlī was Ibn Yadir (d. 1473). To study with him, it is possible that al-Maghīlī went as far as the Saharan oasis region of Tuwat, nearly 620 miles (1,000 kilometers) south of Tlemcen. The latter had moved to the oasis zone in the 1440’s to pursue his own studies and also to serve as Islamic judge, or qadi, in Tuwat.
Al-Maghīlī was exposed early in his life to applied Islamic law, not only through his association with the qadi Ibn Yadir but also through a major work he may have studied while still in Tlemcen: Tuhfat al nazir (virtue of the minister), by Muḥammad al-ՙUqbani (d. 1409). This work was a law treatise in a field known to Islamists as hisba (legal control over public mores), which focuses on the daily lives of Muslims. The Tuhfat was particularly detailed on matters having to do with the status of non-Muslims, protected people called dhimmis (singular dhimma), living in Islamic society. The entire field of hisba was something that attracted the young al-Maghīlī, and this interest carried over into later years when he gained a major reputation as a reformer and preacher.
Life’s Work
The exact date of al-Maghīlī’s decision to move to Tamantit, a main town dominating the oasis of Tuwat, is not known. Events in Tamantit itself helped establish al-Maghīlī’s reputation as a reformist. It was in Tamantit that he had his first exposure to the major trans-Saharan trade caravans that traveled through Tuwat to the black African kingdoms of the general region referred to as the Sudan (bilad al-sudan, land of the blacks), the area that includes the great Niger River bend (now Mali, Niger, and the northern regions of Nigeria).
After he had established himself in Tamantit, al-Maghīlī began a crusade to correct what he claimed was a lack of adherence by non-Muslims, particularly Jews, to provisions of Islamic law governing their status. Apparently, he was concerned with conditions not only in Tamantit but also in the entire oases frontier zone in the northern Sahara. The main points at issue were legal questions, such as required payment by non-Muslims of the so-called head tax for protected people, or jizya. Al-Maghīlī, apparently, went beyond mere debate. According to one of his main biographers, IbnՙAskar, he claimed that if protected non-Muslims did not honor the legal provisions for their special status in Islam, physical action against them was justifiable, since they were effectively giving up their right to protection. He also maintained that maintenance of a synagogue in Tamantit was contrary to the assumption that protected peoples should remain in a subordinate position and that synagogues, if allowed to exist, might be considered equal in importance to the Islamic mosque.
Whether he called for mob action to deal with assumed illegal actions by Jews, surviving contemporary reports and later historical accounts confirm that violent attacks were carried out in various places in the Tuwat zone during the time of al-Maghīlī’s residence there. Indeed, the well-known early sixteenth century account by Leo Africanus states that an actual massacre of Jews took place in 1492 (the same year in which the Jews were expelled from Spain by King Ferdinand II and Queen Isabella I), implying al-Maghīlī’s direct involvement in inciting the violence.
Al-Maghīlī is best known for his extended travels, beginning between 1490 and 1493, in the Middle Niger region. The decision to leave the Tuwat oasis region may or may not have been connected to the tumultuous events in Gurara (and other places) in and around 1492. His first trip across the Sahara could have been the result of an invitation from Muhammad Rumfa, sultan of the Hausa state of Kano (now in northern Nigeria). Unlike his contemporary King SonniՙAlī of the Songhai Empire, who held sway at that time over the major trade termini once contained in the empire of Mali, Muhammad Rumfa appeared to be fully devoted to Islam, and he took pride in the fact that Muslim scholars came from afar to assist and apparently to advise his court.
During his extended stay in Kano, al-Maghīlī composed two manuscripts that might be compared to what in the Western world are called traditional “mirrors for princes.” The strictly political sections of these works deal with statecraft, or the development of skills necessary to govern. Al-Maghīlī, however, was concerned especially with proper Islamic behavior in society. Thus, the subject of hisba, or formal control over mores, appeared in a section dealing with, among other subjects, gender relations and prohibition of alcoholic beverages. Another section is more specifically concerned with administration of justice under Shariՙa law (canon law). Al-Maghīlī spent several years in Kano and may have contracted a local marriage, since to this day there is still a group of people there who claim to be his descendants.
After visiting Katsina, a second well-known Hausa state, sometime in the mid-1490’s, al-Maghīlī traveled farther west, reaching Gao, the capital of the Songhai Empire, around 1498. The political situation in Songhai had changed considerably since the death in 1492 of King SonniՙAlī, a ruler who seems to have either neglected Islamic guidelines or perhaps even opposed them openly. After a succession struggle, the much more pious Muslim ruler, Mohammed I Askia , ascended the throne in 1493 and confirmed his dedication to Islam by making the pilgrimage to Mecca. Perhaps Mohammed I Askia passed through the Hausa states returning from Mecca and Cairo, which would explain how al-Maghīlī met him before journeying to Gao.
In any event, and even though al-Maghīlī’s name does not appear in major Arabic language chronicles of Songhai history, it was there that he composed his best-known work, the Ajwibatu (Shariՙa in Songhay , 1985). This work purports to be al-Maghīlī’s responses to a set number of questions posed by the new ruler of Songhai. The subjects range from straight governmental questions through choice of trained Islamic advisers, and from tajdid, or Islamic revival and revolution, to responsibilities for jihad, or effort in advancing the faith.
Significance
Al-Maghīlī was an intermediary between the centuries-old North African tradition of Islam and the nascent Islam of sub-Saharan Africa. His role in tajdid remains significant for its time. Al-Maghīlī’s role also marked the extension of literary Arabic as a shared mode of communication between the Niger zone and the rest of the Islamic world.
Bibliography
Fisher, Humphrey. “Leo Africanus and the Songhay Conquest of Hausaland.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 11 (1978): 86-112. This article studies an early firsthand account of the political relations between the two regions of the Niger basin affected by al-Maghīlī’s teachings.
Hunwick, John. “Religion and State in the Songhay Empire, 1464-1591.” In Islam in Tropical Africa, edited by I. M. Lewis. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1980. Discusses the complexities of Islam’s role in the politics of an African society that was only partially converted during al-Maghīlī’s time.
Hunwick, John., trans. and ed. Shariՙa in Songhay. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. A translation of al-Maghīlī’s Ajwibatu.