al-Dāmag̲h̲ānī, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad b.

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al-Dāma ānī, Abū Abd Allāh Muḥammad b. Alī (2,287 words)

B. MUḤAMMAD B. ALĪ B. MUḤAMMAD B. AL-ḤUSAYN B. ABD AL-MALIK B. ABD AL-WAHHĀB B. ḤAMMŪYA B. ḤASANAWAYH , Ḥanafī jurist who,
as Chief Ḳāḍī of Ba dād, stands at the head of a family dynasty holding the positions of ḳāḍī or ḳāḍī ’l-ḳuḍāt down
through the years. The following sketch is based mostly on al-Ḏ awāhir al-muḍiyya fī ṭabaḳāt al-Ḥanafiyya by Abd al-
Ḳādir b. Abi ’l-Wafā al-Ḳura ī (d. 775/1373). The best way to distinguish between them is ¶ by the use of their
patronymic ( kunya ) and first name ( ism ). Among the eighteen identifiable members of this family, three distinguished
themselves from among the others; namely, the eponym Abū Abd Allāh Muḥammad (no. 1), his son Abu ’l-Ḥasan Alī (no.
2), and one of their last descendants Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Alī (no. 15). The eponyms kunya and ism are also those of the latter’s
brother (no. 16), and for this reason, the eponym was referred to—not it seems, in the contemporary documents, but later
— as al-Kabīr , the Elder; this was in order to distinguish him from all the rest, not merely from his much later
descendants who were too far removed to cause confusion and who had the same kunya and ism (nos 4 and 16), but of
whom none was referred to as al-Ṣa īr .

1. Dāma ānī the Elder was born in 398/1007 in Dām ān in the province of Ḳūmis [qq.v.], where he was first educated
and pursued his initial studies in law. He then came to Ba dād in 419/1029 at the age of 21. Here he continued his
studies of law under the two great masters of Ḥanafī law, al-Ḳudūrī (d. 428/1037) and al-Ṣaymarī (d. 436/1045). The
jurisconsult Ḳudūrī, famous for his work on law, known especially by his name, Mu taṣar al-Ḳudūrī , with numerous
commentaries (see a list in GAL, I, 183, Suppl. I, 295), was also one of his teachers of ḥadī (see the certificate or samā
dated u ’l-Ḳa da 423 in the Köprülü Library (Istanbul) no. 1584, fol. 41b).

Coming from humble beginnings, Abū Abd Allāh experienced material difficulties in pursuing his studies in the great
capital. The madrasas had not yet begun to flourish in Ba dād, with their endowments for the benefit of students as well
as the teaching staff. He had therefore to work, as other needy students did, and pursue his studies at the same time. He
took a job as night guard which also allowed him to study by the light of the guard’s lamp. He studied hard and learned by
heart the current textbooks on law. One night he was surprised by a son of the caliph al-Muḳtadir, now an old prince who,
admiring his knowledge of the law, invited him to come to his residence on Thursdays and aided him materially.

When the Chief Ḳāḍī of the caliph al-Ḳā im died in 447/1055, the year that the Sal ūḳs defeated the Buwayhids, the caliph
consulted with the wealthy Ḥanbalī merchant Abū Manṣūr b. Yūsuf [q.v.] regarding his replacement. He wanted someone
who was more knowledgeable in the field of law than the deceased. Abū Manṣūr suggested al-Dāma ānī, who was thus

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qualified, but whose appointment would also please the wazīr of the Sal ūḳ Ṭo ril̊ Beg, Amīd al-Mulk al-Kundurī [q.v.].
Previously, the post of chief magistrate had been particularly reserved for adherents of the āfi ī law school. Assigning it
to a member of the Ḥanafī school, which was also that of the Sal ūḳ Sultan and his wazīr, was an act dictated by political
expediency, not by al-Dāma ānī’s superior knowledge of the law; for there were other jurisconsults of the āfi ī school,
from which previous chief magistrates were chosen to serve, who were more highly qualified than he was, namely Abu ’l-
Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī (d. 450/1058), the great āfi ī jurisconsult of the period; al-Māwardī (d. 450/1058), the celebrated
author of al-Aḥkām al-sulṭāniyya ; Abū Isḥāḳ al- īrāzī (d. 476/1083), disciple of Abu ’l-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī, his repetitor (
mu īd ), and first professor at the Madrasa Niẓāmiyya of Ba dād; and Abū Naṣr b. al-Ṣabbā (d. 477/1084), disciple of
Abu ’l-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī, classmate and later colleague and rival of Abū Isḥāq ¶ al- īrāzī, and believed by Ibn allikān to
be even more knowledgeable in āfi ī law than al- īrāzī.

After his appointment, the fortunes of al-Dāma ānī changed. Only three years after his appointment, his residence was
rich enough to attract the attention of burglars, and again later, in 493/1100, when his son Abu ’l-Ḥasan Alī was the
occupant.

Dāma ānī the Elder was considered in his day as one of the leaders of his legal school, with some reputation in the field
of disputation ( munāẓara ). He continued in his post as Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt for thirty years, under the caliphs al-Ḳā im (d.
467/1075) and al-Muḳtadī (d. 487/1094). He served as a substitute wazīr under both caliphs, refusing to accept the
vizierate itself and not wanting to exceed his position as Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt (Ibn al- awzī [also apud Ibn Aqīl], Muntaẓam , ix,
210, 11. 15-16: fa-abā ta addiya rutbati ’l-ḳaḍā ). This genuine modesty was perhaps due to a gentle personality as well as
to his humble beginnings. The period of his life when he lived in poverty, hardly having enough to eat, was also perhaps
the cause \of his becoming a voracious eater when he could afford to buy all the food he wanted. One anecdote
(Muntaẓam, ix, 24, 11. 3 ff.) tells of his finishing off a thirty-pound ( raṭl ) plate of pastry at the end of a copious meal at a
banquet given by the caliph’s wazīr Fa r al-Dawla b. ahīr. He died in 478/1085.

Only one work on law has come down to us from al-Dāma ānī, the Kitāb Masā il al-ḥīṭān wa ’l-ṭuruḳ (Berlin Ms. 4982).
His biographers do not cite any works for him. Among his students was Abū Ṭāhir Ilyās al-Daylamī (d. 461/1069), who
was the first professor of law at the great Madrasa of Abū Ḥanīfa founded the same year as the Niẓāmiyya of Ba dād (see
GAL, I, 460, Suppl. I, 637, and bibliography cited; G. Makdisi, Ibn Aqīl , 171 ff. n. 6, and index, s.v. Abū Abd Allāh al-
Dāma ānī).

Here follows a list of his descendants with full names, according to the enumeration in the sketch below, all of whom were
known by the nisba of al-Dāma ānī.

2. Abu ’l-Ḥasan Alī b. Muḥammad [q.v. below].

3. Abū a far Abd Allāh b. Muḥammad, Muha ib al-Dawla (d. 518/1124); became a āhid -notary under his father
(no. I); appointed as ḳāḍī of the East Side quarter of Bāb al-Ṭāḳ in Ba dād, and of the stretch from upper Ba dād to
Mawṣil, by his brother (no. 2) when the latter became Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt (23 a bān 488/28 August 1095) ( awāhir , i, 287-
8).

4. Abū Abd Allāh Muḥammad b. Alī, Tā al-Ḳuḍāt (d. 516/1122); became āhid- notary under his father (no. 2), who
appointed him as his representative magistrate in Ba dād and elsewhere; when his father died, he was put up as
candidate for the post of Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt to succeed his father, but was not appointed; was sent as ambassador of the caliph
to Transoxania and died during the mission at 38 years of age ( awāhir, ii, 96).

5. Abu ’l-Ḥusayn Aḥmad b. Alī (d. 540/1145); was appointed ḳāḍī of the West Side quarter of Kar in Ba dād, and later
of the whole of the West Side quarter of Bāb al-Aza ( awāhir, i, 82; al-Tamīmī al-Dārī al- azzī, Muntaẓam, ix, 117; al-
Ṭabaḳāt al-saniyya fī tarā im al-ḥanafiyya , i, 473).

6. Abū Naṣr al-Ḥasan b. Alī (d. 555/1160); substituted for his brother (no. 5) as ḳāḍī of the West Side quarter of Kar
( awāhir, i, 199-200).

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7. Abū Abd Allāh al-Ḥusayn b. Alī (d. 561/1166) ¶ (see awāhir , i, 214-5, where the year of death is given as 461,
erroneously, because (a) the day of death is given as Friday 11 Ra ab, and 11 Radjab was a Friday for 561, but a
Wednesday for 461, and (b) the biographical notice cites him as a brother of “Abū Naṣr al-Ḥasan” (no. 6), who died in
555/1160. One more discrepancy appears at the end of the notice where the author of the awāhir quotes Ibn al-Na ār
(d. 643/1245) as citing the father (no. 2) of this Dāma ānī as his informant regarding the son, which is not possible).

8. Abū Manṣūr a far b. Abd Allāh (d. 568/1172-3); born in 490/1097, he studied ḥadī under the two Ḥanbalīs Abu ’l-
aṭṭāb al-Kalwa ānī (d. 510/1116), known for both ḥadī and fiḳh , and Yaḥyā b. Manda (d. 511/1118), the great ḥadī -
expert ( awāhir, i, 179).

9. Abū Sa īd al-Ḥasan b. Abd Allāh (d. 575/1179); studied ḥadī under the great ḥadī -expert Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Hibat Allāh
b. Muḥammad al- aybānī al-Ba dādī (d. 524/1130) ( awāhir, i, 196).

10. Abu ’l-Muẓaffar al-Ḥusayn b. Aḥmad (d. 579/1183); his brother (no. 12) accepted him as āhid -notary in 552/1157
and appointed him as his representative magistrate in the quarter of the Caliphal Palace on the East Side of Ba dād
( awāhir, i, 207-8).

11. Abu Muḥammad al-Ḥasan b. Aḥmad (d. 582/1186); his brother (no. 12) accepted him as āhid-notary in 552/1157
and appointed him ḳāḍī in the West Side quarter of Kar in Ba dād, then also in Wāsiṭ; he spent a lifetime in his career
as ḳāḍī, in Wāsiṭ and Ba dād, between dismissals and reappointments ( awāhir, i, 188-89).

12. Abu ’l-Ḥasan Alī b. Aḥmad (d. 583/1188); was appointed ḳāḍī in the Kar quarter of Ba dād’s West Side in
540/1145 following his father’s (no. 5) death. Then when the Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Alī b. al-Ḥusayn al-Zaynabī died
in 543/1149, he was appointed Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt in his place, at the age of ¶ thirty, by the caliph al-Muḳtafī. He was confirmed
in his appointment under the caliph al-Mustan id, who then dismissed him. The caliph al-Mustaḍī reappointed him, and,
the appointment being confirmed later by the caliph al-Nāṣir, Abu ’l-Ḥasan continued to serve until he died. When he was
dismissed by al-Mustan id, he kept to his home, where he pursued his study of the religious sciences, considering himself
as still the Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt, and all the ḳāḍīs as his authorised representatives, “because a ḳāḍī, unless guilty of moral
depravity, may not be dismissed” ( li-anna ’l-ḳāḍiya i ā lam yaẓhar fisḳuh , lam ya uz azluh , Ḏ awāhir , i, 351, 11. 9-
10) (Ibn Ka īr, al-Bidāya wa ’l-nihāya fi ’l-tārī , xii, 329; Ḏ awāhir, i, 350-2; Ibn Ta rībirdī, al-Nu ūm al-zāhira , vi,
104).

13. Abu ’l-Fatḥ Muḥammad b. Alī (d. 575/1180); was accepted as āhid-notary by his father (no. 12) on Monday, 12
Ra ab 575/Thursday 13 December 1179), who made him his assistant magistrate in the city of Ba dād; he died at the age
of 29, less than three months after his appointment (Ḏ awāhir, ii, 91).

14. Abu ’l-Faḍl Muḥammad b. al-Ḥasan (d. 592/1196); was accepted as āhid-notary by his uncle (no. 12) on 12 awwāl
575/Tuesday 11 March 1180), three months after his cousin (no. 13), and was entrusted with the controllership of the
caliphal burial grounds in the East Side quarter of al-Ruṣāfa. He died young (Ḏ awāhir, ii, 40).

15. Abu ’l-Ḳāsim Abd Allāh b. al-Ḥusayn (died Sunday 30 u ’l-Ḳa da 615/17 February 1219); was appointed ḳāḍī in
586/1190, and dismissed in 594/1198; was reappointed as Ḳāḍī ’l-Ḳuḍāt in 603/1207, and dismissed once again in
611/1214; was highly esteemed for his knowledge of the law according to the various schools of juridical thought, as well as
for belles-lettres (Abū āma, Tarā im ri āl al-ḳarnayn al-sādis wa ’l-sābi , 110-11; Ibn Ka īr, al-Bidāya wa ’l-nihāya
fi ’l-tārī , xiii, 82;

¶
Ḏ awāhir , i, 273-4; Ibn Ta rībirdī, al-Nu ūm al-zāhira , vi, 223).

16. Abū Abd Allāh Muḥammad b. al-Ḥusayn died Wednesday 16 a bān 615/7
November 1218, three and-a-half months before his brother (no. 15); was accepted
as āhid -notary by his brother (no. 15) on 20 awwāl 603/20 May 1207, who
appointed him as his representative magistrate in Ba dād, a post he kept until his
brother’s dismissal on 12 Ra ab 611/17 November 1214 which entailed his own
dismissal; he died four years later without reappointment ( awāhir , ii, 48).

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17. Abū a far Yaḥyā b. a far (d. 630/1232-3); he is known to have learned ḥadī from his father (no. 8) and to have
taught the subject, according to al-Mun irī (Abū Muḥammad Abd al- Aẓīm b. Abd al-Ḳawī, d. 656/1258), who received
authorisation ( i āza ) by correspondence from Abū a far, on more than one occasion, to teach on his authority, one in
particular arriving from Aleppo in awwāl 620/October-November 1223). ( awāhir, ii, 211).

The author of the awāhir gives the orthography of the ethnic name al-Dāma ānī and says that it is the name of Ḳāḍī ’l-
Ḳuḍāt Abū Abd Allāh al-Dāma ānī (no. 1) and of a group of his descendants (see ibid., ii, 306). The author cites a
nephew (the son of a sister) of Dāma ānī (of no. 1), Ubayd Allāh b. Muḥammad b. Ṭalḥa b. al-Husayn, Abū Muḥammad
al-Dāma ānī (d. 502/1108), who was accepted by the uncle as a āhid-notary (Ḏ awāhir, i, 340-1).

Another Dāma ānī (fl. 494/1102), Abd Allāh b. al-Ḥusayn b. Abd Allāh, was also accepted as āhid-notary by Abū Abd
Allāh (no. 1), but his identification as a member of the family is not certain (Ḏ awāhir, i. 274).

There are other persons noted with this name, but with no apparent relationship to this family.

Bibliography

Ibn al- awzī, al-Muntaẓam

Abū āma al-Maḳdisī, Tarā im ri āl al-ḳarnayn al-sādis wa ’l-sābi , Cairo 1366/1947

Ibn Ka īr, al-Bidāya wa ’l-nihāya

Abd al-Ḳādir b. Abī ’l-Wafā al-Ḳurashī, al-Ḏ awāhir al-muḍiyya fī ṭabaḳāt al-ḥanafiyya, Ḥaydarābād 1332/1914

Ibn Ta rībirdī, al-Nu ūm al-zāhira, Cairo 1383/1963

G. Makdisi, Ibn Aqīl et la résurgence de l’Islam traditionaliste au XI e siècle, Damascus 1963, 172-5 and index, s.vv. Abu
’l-Ḥasan al-Dāma ānī and Abū Abd Allāh al-Dāma ānī

Brockelmann, I, 460, S I, 637.

(G. Makdisi)

Cite this page

"al-Dāma ānī, Abū Abd Allāh Muḥammad b. Alī." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman, Th. Bianquis, C.E. Bosworth, E. van Donzel,
W.P. Heinrichs. Brill Online, 2014. Reference. U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY. 25 January 2014 <http://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopaedia-of-islam-
2/al-damaghani-abu-abd-allah-muhammad-b-ali-COM_1398>
First appeared online: 2012
First Print Edition: isbn: 9789004161214, 1960-2007

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