© Journal of Islamic Studies 10 3 (1999) pp.

226-248

THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD

CALIPHS AND IBN RUSHD'S BIDAYAT AL-
MUJTAH1D1

MARIBEL FIERRO
Consejo Superior de Investigaaones Ctentificas, Madrid

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1. IBN TUMART, AL-1MAM AL-MA'SUM AL-MAHDI
AL-MA'LUM

The Almohads, who ruled the Islamic west and al-Andalus during the
sixth/twelfth century and the first half of the seventh/thirteenth century,
based their legitimacy as caliphs on the fact that the founder of the
Almohad dynasty, 'Abd al-Mu'min, had been the favourite pupil and
political successor of the mabdi Ibn Tumart (d. 524/1130). According
to the eastern author Ibn al-QalanisT (d. 555/1160), 'Abd al-Mu'min,
the first Almohad caliph, called himself khalifat al-mahdi da sabit al-
muwahhidTn.1 E. Gellner's model of the urban-preacher/militant-tnbe
combination that could lead to state-building in the Maghreb was based
on Ibn Tumart's career,3 as well as on the career of Ibn YasTn (d.
1
Research for this article was carried out within the project PB96—0867 granted by
the Spanish Ministry of Education. Earlier versions were read at the Seminar 'Droit et
politique en Occident musulman a l'epoque almohade', Lyon, 14 November 1997 (organ-
ized by the project UMR No 5648—CNRS/Umversite Lumiere Lyon 2—and the CSIC),
at the University of Bergen (30 January 1998) in the Seminar 'Political Language and
Action, and Religion', within the project Individual and Society in the Mediterranean
Muslim World (European Science Foundation), at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en
Sciences Sociales, Paris (May 1998), and at the 19th Congress of the Union Europeenne
des Arabisants et Islamisants, Halle, 30 August-3 September 1998
2
See Francesco Gabrieli, 'Le origim del movimento almohade in una fonte stonca
d'Onente', Arabica, 3 (1956), 1-7 (text in Ibn al-QalanisT, Dhayl Ta'rikh Dimashq, ed.
H. F. Amedroz, Leiden, 1908, pp. 291-3). The formula is absent in the collection of
'Abd al-Mu'min's letters studied by E. Levi-Provencal: see Trente-sept lettres officielles
almohades, Rabat, 1941, and Hespens, 28 (1941), 1-78; repr Un Recueil de lettres
officielles almohades. Etude diplomatique, analyse et commentaire histonque, Paris, 1942.
3
See E Gellner, Muslim Society, Cambridge, 1983, p. 55. For criticism of the model
see S. Zubayda, 'Is there a Muslim society? Ernest Gellner's Sociology of Islam', Economy
and Society, 24:2 (1995), 151-88 (Zubayda confuses Almoravids and Almohads, attribut-
ing to the former what is characteristic of the latter see p. 174).
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 227

451/1059), a scholar whose teachings among the Sanhaja Berbers gave

rise to the Almoravid movement. Many other examples of the Gellnenan
model can be found in the Maghreb, although usually the careers of
these preachers did not result in the establishment of a new dynasty,
as did happen with Ibn YasTn's and Ibn Tumart's successors. Contrary
to how Ibn YasTn appeared in Almoravid ideology and propagahda, i.e.
as an orthodox Malik! scholar devoted to the Islamization of Berber
tribes and to putting an end to religious deviations, Ibn Tumart is said
to have called himself al-imam al-ma'sum and al-mahdial-ma'lum, i.e.
'the sinless/infallible imam and the acknowledged mahdT', formulas
widely used in caliphal letters and thus an integral part of Almohad

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legitimizing propaganda. Whereas the Almoravids presented themselves
as guarantors of continuity with former political allegiances (acknow-
ledgement of the 'Abbasid caliphate) and of traditional Malikism, the
Almohads stood for revolution.
The most striking aspect of the Almohad caliphate is its explicit
attempt at signalling its discontinuity with the recent past. This was
done in many ways. Almohad coins were minted square instead of
circular. Almohad epigraphy showed a preference for cursive over Kufic
script and for the use of quotations from the Qur'an to the exclusion
of almost everything else. This fact should be connected with the
recurrent Almohad doctrine that the Muslim community should go
back to the fundamental sources, Qur'an and hadTth, and reject the
kutub al-ra'y that predominated in western Malikism. Almohad mos-
ques were built with great austerity, as if trying to recapture that
original simplicity which is urged in Prophetic hadTth* The dhimma
protected status of Jews and Christians was abolished.5 Pilgrimage to
Makka seems to have been discouraged. A new call for prayer was
introduced in which the Berber language was sometimes used, a call
that corresponded to an old practice called tathwib.6 These last
examples clearly point to the intention on the part of the Almohad
caliphs to impose discontinuity in the legal field in the same way that
they did in coins, epigraphy, and art. The old scholarly elites were
4
See M. J. Kister,' "A booth like the booth of Moses. ."• a Study of an Early HadTth',
BSOAS 25 (1962), 150-5. Al-Turtushl, an AndalusT )unst who had great influence in the
Almohad movement, dealt extensively with this hadTth: see his Kitab al-hawadith wa-l-
bida' (El Itbro de las nouedades y las innouactones), transl and studied by M. I. Fierro,
Madrid, 1993, No. 179.
5
See J. P. Molenat, 'Sur le role des almohades dans la fin du christiamsme local au
Maghreb et en al-Andalus', Al-Qantara, 18 (1997), 389-414.
6
On these and other Almohad practices see M. Fierro, 'La religion', in El retroceso
territorial de al-Andalus Almoravides y almohades Stglos XI al XIII, vol 8:2 of Histona
de Espana fundada por R. Menendez Ptdal y dtngida por J. M" Jover, Madrid Espasa
Calpe, 1997, pp. 435-546, especially p. 515
2.28 MARIBEL FIERRO

replaced by Almohad party-members or militants, the talaba, who were

subject to special training and paid by the Almohad state. Their training
involved the study of Ibn Tumart's writings7 and participation in ses-
sions of mudhakara or speculative debates organized in the presence of
the caliph or his political delegates. The first Almohad caliphs also
supported the extraordinary flourishing of philosophy of the sixth/
twelfth century in western Islam. One of the earliest non-Almohad
sources on Ibn Tumart, Ibn al-QalanisT (d. 555/1160), describes his
doctrine as madhhab fikr, which, however we are to interpret those
words,8 must indicate that rational speculation played an important
part in it. The second Almohad caliph, Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, asked Ibn

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Rushd al-Haftd (Averroes) to write commentaries on Aristotle's philo-
sophical treatises. Ibn Tumart's doctrine in his 'AqTda that knowledge
of God can be reached through logical reasoning opens the possibility
of denying revelation as the condition of primary and indispensable
evidence of God, because it implies that human reason, without revela-
tion, might reach religious truth.9 This is the message of one of the first
works of a clearly Almohad character written in al-Andalus, Ibn
Tufayl's Hayy b. Yaqzdn.10 This work, at the same time, shows the
centrahty that Sufism acquired during the Almohad caliphate after its
flourishing under the Almoravids. Some authors have seen Sufi tenden-
cies in Ibn Tumart,11 although there is no direct evidence of this in the
Kitab attributed to him. The indirect way in which Ibn Tumart's
7
They are collected in the so-called Kitab Ibn Tumart. see D. Luciani (ed.), Le Lwre
de Mohammed Ibn Toumert, Mahdt des Almohades, avec une introd. de I Goldziher,
Alger, 1903 (there is a new edition by 'Ammar TalibT, Algiers, 1985). The text of the
'AqTda can be found in D. Luciani (ed.), pp 229-38, there is a medieval Latin translation
see M.-T. d'Alverny y G. Vajda, 'Marc de Tolede, traducteur d'lbn Tumart', Al-Andalus,
16 (1951), 99-140 and 259-307, Al-Andalus, 17 (1952), 1-56 See also H. Masse, 'La
Profession de foi ('aqTda) et les guides spintuels (morchida) du Mahdi Ibn Toumert',
Memorial Henri Basset, vol. 2, Pans, 1928, pp 105-21.
8
See the study by Gabneli cited in note 2
9
This position is close to ShT'ite understanding of the relationship between revelation
and reason Whereas SunnT Islam does not recognize human intuition as a valid source
of law, in ShT'T Islam 'divine command and human intellection are complementary
right and wrong are the common postulates of both revelation and reason'. B. Weiss,
'Interpretation in Islamic Law. The Theory of 1/tihad', The American Journal of
Comparative Law, 26 2 (1978), 199-212, p. 211
10
According to some scholars, Ibn Tufayl wrote his work towards the end of his life
(he died in 581/1185). D. Urvoy thinks that it was composed before the year 575/1179
see Ibn Rushd (Averroes), transl. O Stewart, London and New York, 1991, p. 31. See
on Ibn Tufayl and his work L. I. Conrad (ed.), The World of Ibn Tufayl. Interdisciplinary
Perspectives on Hayy ibn Yaqzan, Leiden, 1996.
11
See M Fletcher, 'The Almohad Tawhid Theology which relies on Logic', Numen,
38 1 (1991), 110—27, and J. Katura, 'al-Tasawwuf wa-1-sulta: namadhi) min al-qarn al-
sadis al-hi]rT ft 1-Maghnb wa-1-Andalus', al-1/tihdd, 12 (1991), 181-212, p. 196.
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 229

doctrine approaches Sufism has been recently shown by T. Nagel. The

oneness of God postulated by Ibn Tumart has nothing to do with
Mu'tazilism in that the latter rejects any ontological contact between
God and His creatures, whereas for Ibn Tumart the conditioned being
and the Absolute Being refer to one another. Knowledge, which is
created by God and makes the cosmos what it really is, appears in the
believer's heart as a light that allows man to establish the essence of
things. Ibn Tumart considers that his mission is to unveil knowledge
again, because knowledge has become progressively hidden since the
Prophet's death. That is the mission of 'the infallible mahdT who pre-
sents the characteristics predicted by tradition'. Nagel states that, when

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it is said in Ibn Tumart's Kttab that the mahdT is the one who is nearest
to God and that thanks to him heaven and earth are supported, a
parallelism might be drawn with Ibn Tumart's eastern contemporary,
the Sufi 'Abd al-Qadir al-JTlanl, and his doctrine on the qutb, a pre-
existent figure who guarantees the continuity of the cosmos. Ibn Tumart
was, therefore, a representative of the intense process of change in
Islamic culture of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, when new forms
of explanation of the world and of guarantees of salvation appeared or
became widespread.12
The first half of the sixth/twelfth century was an age of religious and
political crisis in the Islamic west.13 The Almoravid emirs and the
traditional Malik! scholars had to face rival figures of authority. Those
figures were mainly Sufis such as the AndalusTs Ibn Barrajan (d. 536/1141
or 537/1142) and Ibn al-'Anf (d. 536/1141), who had a large number of
followers both in the towns and in the countryside. Both men were
summoned by the Almoravid emir to the capital, Marrakesh, and died
there in suspicious circumstances. Sufi-oriented scholars affiliated to the
Malik! school of law and to Ash'arism, like Abu Bakr b. al-'ArabT (d.
543/1148), had received the influence of al-GhazalT's writings. These
were seen as dangerous by factions of traditional scholars and by some
of the Almoravid rulers. Ibn Tumart's encounter with al-Ghazall is
apocryphal.14 But the fact that the Almohad sources insist on this
fictitious teacher—pupil relationship shows that they were aware that
they could put to their service the religious and political capital that
12
See T. Nagel, 'La destruccion de la ciencia de la sarta por Muhammad b. Tumart',
Al-Qantara, 18 (1997), 295-304 See the reference in an Almohad poem to the light of
the MahdT T Garulo, 'La poesia de al-Andalus en epoca almohade', Musica y poesia.
El Legado andalusi, Barcelona, 1995, pp. 149-60, p. 151.
13
See M. Fierro, 'Spiritual Alienation and Political Activism. The Ghuraba' in al-
Andalus during the Sixth/Twelfth Century', Arabica, forthcoming.
14
Studies devoted to Ibn Tumart all deal with this issue and some articles have been
devoted exclusively to it R. Le Tourneau, 'Ibn Tumart et al-GhazalT se sont-ils
rencontres'', Bulletin d'Etudes Arabes, 34 (1947), A. Ben Hammadi, 'Encore sur la
230 MARIBEL FIERRO

opposition towards al-GhazalT during the Almoravid period had

generated.
When Almoravid rule started collapsing, the qadls of some AndalusT
towns took power in their own hands. But the main challenge to the
Almoravids in al-Andalus came from Ibn QasT, a Sufi rebel active in
the south-western regions of the peninsula whose career has some
common points with Ibn Tumart's: he was also called tnahdi and aimed
at a religious renewal, similar in that both men thought that God and
man are connected, either by truth or by knowledge. Ibn QasT was
forced to seek Almohad help in North Africa and to acknowledge that
Ibn Tumart was the true mahdT, thus helping the Almohads in their

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conquest of al-Andalus.ls
In the cases of both Ibn QasI and Ibn Tumart it is difficult to ascertain
the precise meaning of the term mahdT in their doctrines and to separate
that meaning from what others understood it to mean and from its
later development within the movements they initiated. In Ibn Tumart's
case this designation has been understood as approaching ShT'ism, as
rivalling Prophetic status, or as an identification with the eschatological
MahdT who would establish justice on earth at the end of time.16 It has
also been said that his Mahdism should be seen as a concession to the
Berber context. M. Fletcher's opinion is that Ibn Tumart's presentation
as mahdT and his alleged miracles were instruments adequate for polit-
ical action in a Berber context, so that they would be accidental and
not essential parts of Ibn Tumart's doctrine.17 She seems to be following
W. M. Watt's earlier statement that 'The claim of Ibn Tumart... to be
rencontre entre GhazalT et Ibn Tumart', 1BLA 156 (1985), 32-9, M. Fletcher, 'Ibn
Tumart's Teachers. The Relationship with al-GhazalT', Al-Qantara, 18 (1997), 305-30
In my opinion, there was no meeting between the two (if ever Ibn Tumart was in the
east). Ibn Tumart's visit to al-Andalus (see A. Ben Hammadi, 'Hawla murur Ibn Tumart
bi-1-Andalus fl tarTqi-hi lla I-Mashnq', Dirasat andalustyya, 6 (1411/1991), 6-26) is also
a fiction. Its function was to show that Ibn Tumart was familiar with the AndalusT
milieu, so that when al-GhazalT asked him about what was going on in the west he
could tell him that his works were being burnt Al-GhazalT could then foresee that Ibn
Tumart would avenge him In fact, the only teacher Ibn Tumart is said to have had in
al-Andalus was Ibn HamdTn, allegedly the MalikT ]unst responsible for burning al-
GhazalT's works
15
See Fierro, 'La religion', pp. 489-90.
16
See M. Fierro, 'Ibn Tumart et al-Andalus l'elaboration de la legmmite almohade',
Revue du Monde Musulman et de la Mediterranee, 87-8 (2000), forthcoming, where a
new approach is proposed regarding Ibn Tumart's mahdism, i.e. that the presentation
of Ibn Tumart as mahdT might have been influenced by Ibn QasT's experience
17
M. Fletcher, 'Ibn Tumart's Teachers', pp. 325—6 'mahdism and magic ... can be
considered modes of political communication with a traditional Berber milieu'. But there
is no mechanical connection between Berbers and mahdTs Ibn YasTn, the founder of the
Almoravid movement, was a Berber and he did not need to present himself as a mahdT
to start the Almoravid movement.
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 231

the MahdT does not seem to have been intended as the basis for legal
reforms, but to have been mainly to meet the need of the Berbers for
a divinely inspired and supported leader.'18 But Ibn Tumart's mahdism
is what provided 'Abd al-Mu'min with the legitimization for pro-
claiming himself caliph, for creating new elites, the talaba, and for
attempting the experiment of imposing discontinuity with the past also
in the legal field.
A. Laroui, basing himself on the interpretation of Ibn Tumart's
doctrine given by Muslim authors such as Ibn Taymiyya, understands
Ibn Tumart as fundamentally a tnujtahid, a scholar mainly concerned
with the ways in which divine law and will should be interpreted, the

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founder of a legal and theological school, and a rationalist theologian.19
As T. Nagel has shown, in the section of his Kitdb devoted to usiil al-
fiqh (A'azz ma yutlab) Ibn Tumart asked himself the question 'of what
kind is our knowledge of divine law and from where does it come?'
His answer, according to Nagel, was absolutely innovatory, so that his
thought should not be described as Ash'arT, Mu'tazilT, Zahiri, or MahkT.
Ibn Tumart was the founder of a new system, in which the acquisition
of true and certain knowledge is made possible by the use of reason.20
The starting-point is to refer to those sources which guarantee true
knowledge, the Qur'an and hadlth, and then to use methodological
procedures that guarantee in their turn the deduction of true knowledge.
These procedures were not innovations in themselves; they included
acceptance of the tawatur mode of transmission and rejection of the
akhbar al-ahad; acceptance of 'ada or custom, that is, of that which
is guaranteed by the perception of the senses, such as Madman
tradition, guaranteed by the fact that it was in Madina that the words
and deeds of the Prophet were most faithfully preserved; and qiyas or
analogical reasoning.21 Ibn Tumart also established a close connection
18
'Philosophy and Theology under the Almohads', Adas del Primer Congreso de
Estudios Arabes e Islamicos (Cordoba, 1962), Madrid, 1964, pp. 101-7, p. 103, see also
'Philosophy and Social Structure in Almohad Spain', The Islamic Quarterly, 8 (1964),
46—51. Among Ibn Tumart's companions, Bishr al-WansharTsT seems to have been the
one who catered to the religiosity of the tribes in the Gellnenan sense he is in fact
described in the sources as a magician and performer of miracles, and he is called al-
MasTh or Messiah.
19
See A. Laroui, 'Sur le mahdisme d'lbn Tumart', in A Kaddun (ed.), Mabdisme.
Crise et changement dans I'htstoire du Maroc Actes de la table ronde organisee a
Marrakech par la Faculte des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines de Rabat du 11 au 14
Fevrter 1993, Rabat, 1994, pp. 9-13.
20
Compare with what D. Urvoy has to say on this issue in Averroes. Les ambitions
d'un mtellectuel musulman, Paris, 1998, p. 50
21
The acceptance of qiyas by Ibn Tumart in his Kitab indicates a non-Zahm position
see R. Brunschvig, 'Sur la doctrine du MahdT Ibn Tumart', Arabica, 2 (1955), 137-49
and 'Encore sur la doctrine du MahdT Ibn Tumart', Folia Onentalia (1970), pp 33-40.
Z32. MARIBEL FIERRO

between knowledge and practice, stating that human beings have the
capacity of action, because creation, contrary to what Ash'arism
maintains, is a totality constituted by fixed rules imposed by God and
those rules become manifest to those who search for the connections
between things,22 a position that certainly favours philosophical
enquiry.
One of the earliest sources on the Almohad movement, Ibn al-QalanisT
(d. 555/1160), states that Ibn Tumart was mentioned in 'Abd al-
Mu'min's letters as al-mahdl ila sabit Allah, i.e. as the one who guides
the believers along the path of God and according to His law.23
According to the Kitab attributed to Ibn Tumart, there cannot be two

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true solutions to the same problem, only one; he rejects in this way the
principle of ikhttlaf that sustains the contingency of Islamic law and
the traditional acceptance of the different schools of law. Ibn Tumart
was in agreement with the Zahiris in their reaction of taswib, that is,
the legal doctrine according to which every qualified interpreter of the
divine law speaks the truth (kull mujtahid muslb).24
Within this context, al-mahdT da sabTl Allah and al-imam al-ma'sum
al-mahdT al-ma'lum are labels apt to be applied to the founder of a
new school of law considered to be the true and only one. Prophets are
denied ijhhad which produces zann (opinion) and not 'ilm (true know-
ledge), since their message would otherwise be unreliable, and they are
preserved from error (ma'sum min al-khata')}5 Shl'ite imams are also
denied ijtihad, as they are infallible: 'their decisions depend either on

22
Ibn Taymiyya already indicated t h a t Ibn T u m a r t w a s o p p o s e d t o A s h ' a r i s m a n d
that h e w a s closer t o t h e philosophers a n d t h e Isma'Ilites. See H . L a o u s t , ' U n e Fetwa
d ' l b n Taimlya sur I b n T u m a r t ' , BIFAO (1960), p p . 1 5 7 - 8 4
23
See references in note 2 In I b n Sahib al-Salat's chronicle, al-mahdT is described as
'he w h o incited t o be firm in G o d ' s l a w ' a n d ' h e w h o cured religion of its illness a n d
sufferings' see al-Mann bi-l-imdma, transl. A. Huici M i r a n d a , Valencia, 1969, p p 80,
103 a n d also p p . 4 6 , 9 7 , 115, 119, 121, 123, 131. F o r D Urvoy, the A l m o h a d imam,
although sinless (ma'sum), is n o t t h e ShT'T imam w h o shares in revelation, b u t just a
political a n d religious leader t o w h o m obedience a n d imitation were d u e , even if the
populace might n o t have been a w a r e of this difference see Averroes, p . 141 a n d cf
Nagel's interpretation I will deal with t h e analogies between A l m o h a d i s m a n d ShT'ism
in a forthcoming article, ' T h e A l m o h a d s a n d the " S u n n i z a t i o n " of ShT'ism' (see also
note 9 ) .
24
See Ibn Tumart, Lwre (section entitled A'azz ma yutlab), p 25 Cf. Ibn al-Qattan,
Nazm al-]umdn, ed. M. 'A MakkT, Tetuoan, n.d. (repr. Beirut, 1990), p 196 fa-laysa
kull muftahtd musiban bt-ra'yi-hi, quoting a letter from the caliph 'Abd al-Mu'min on
al-amr bi-l-ma'riif, in which it is also said that the caliph must be consulted in reli-
gious matters.
25
For the complexity involved in this issue see E Chaumont, 'La Problematique
classique de Vijtihad et la question de Vtjtihad du prophete ijtihad, wahy et 'isma',
Studta Ulamica, 75 (1992), 105-40
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS Z33

instruction (ta'lTm) from the Prophet or on divine inspiration.'26 Ibn

Tumart says in his Kitdb: 'Falsehood is removed only by the MahdT,
truth is not established except by the MahdT, the MahdT is known
amongst the Arabs and non-Arabs, the settled peoples and the nomadic
peoples ... Belief in the MahdT is obligatory, anyone who doubts him
is an unbeliever.'27
A. Laroui has pointed out that the research done on Ibn Tumart
lacks a proper histonographical study. Such a study would allow us to
grasp how his biography was constructed and the needs that it was
intended to meet as the policies of the Almohad dynasty changed and
adapted to the requirements of an empire that covered the Maghreb

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and IfrTqiya and also al-Andalus. At the same time, the sources at our
disposal suffer from what E. Fricaud has called the process of 'de-
almohadization' that took place after the defeat of the Almohad caliph-
ate in the seventh/thirteenth century, especially at the hands of the
Mannids.28 Because of this 'de-almohadization' it is often difficult, if
not impossible, to recover the impact and import of Ibn Tumart's
thought and doctrine and how the impulse of religious reform attributed
to him was transformed or preserved under the Almohads. In any case,
two aspects of Ibn Tumart's doctrine, his proclamation to be al-tmam
al-ma'sitm and al-mahdt al-ma'lum, and his rejection of the prevailing
concept that the legal opinions advanced by every mujtahid are to be
considered equally right (kull mujtahid mustb), are highly charged from
both a political and a religious point of view. To what extent were
these two aspects embodied in the legal and religious policies of the
Almohads? What consequences, if any, did Ibn Tumart's Mahdism and
infallibility have upon Almohad legal policies?

2. THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD

CALIPHS
What was Almohad criticism of the MalikTs of western Islam? The
answer given by the sources is not new, as it is the same as has been
26
See H. Halm, Shnsm, Edinburgh, 1991, pp. 68-9 and 175 Cf Chaumont, 'La
Problematique classique de Vtjtihad', p. 125 revelation that takes place inside (wahy
batin) concerns both prophets and saints, being that in which a sign (ishara) is taken
and integrated into an i/tthad This is more similar to an intuitive process than to a true
examination, as in the end the truth becomes manifest to the prophet or saint 'a la
faveur d'une lumiere dans son coeur provenant de son Seigneur, lumiere par laquelle le
statut du cas inedit s'eclaircit'. On the MahdT's light see above, note 12
27
Livre (section devoted to al-imama), p 257
28
'Les Talaba dans la societe almohade (Le temps d'Averroes)', Al-Qantara, 18
(1997), 331-88
234 MARIBEL FIERRO

made against Mahkism since the times of al-Shafi'T: that it did not
follow the fundamental sources of the Sharfa, the Qur'an, and
Prophetic tradition, that there was a need to go back to these,29 and
that MalikTs were hostile to ijtihad and centred in taqltd.30 Almohad
opposition to Malikism went through different phases.
'Abd al-Mu'min (r. 524/1130-558/1163), the first Almohad caliph,
was favourable to Zahirism. The Zahiri scholar Ibn Mada' (d. 592/1195)
emigrated around the year 540/1145 from Cordoba to Tfnmal, where
he gathered a number of students, among them the caliph's own chil-
dren.31 In a text to be found in al-BurzulT's Nawaztl,32 this caliph is
said to have wanted to replace Mahkism by Zahirism. The vizir and

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secretary Abu Ja'far b. 'Atiyya accused the Malik! jurists of having
abandoned the Qur'an and the Sunna of the Prophet and of follow-
ing the kutub al-furu' and the kutub al-masa'il, such as Sahnun's
Mudawwana. He gave as an example the case of the repetition of the
invalid prayer,33 which had been the object of controversy between Ibn
Hazm and the MahkTs. The jurist Abu 'Abd Allah Ibn Zarqun (d.
586/1190)34 intervened, showing that Malik! doctrine in this case corre-
sponded perfectly to Prophetic tradition and that the contents of the
Mudawwana concerning that case were in agreement with the Qur'an
and Sunna. The Malik! Ibn Zarqun is said to have convinced the caliph
'Abd al-Mu'min of the truth of Malik! doctrine. According to S. A'rab,
this success demonstrates that the Malik! jurists were well able to defend
their doctrine with the same weapons (the traditions of the Prophet) as
those used by their enemies. Ibn Zarqun was not the only Malik! to
29
See o n this general criticism R Brunschvig, 'Polemiques medievales a u t o u r du rite
de M a l i k ' , Al-Andalus, 15 (1950), 3 7 7 - 4 1 3 .
30
Ibn R u s h d praised the A l m o h a d s in his Fasl al-maqal for having invited t h e people
to go in religion beyond taqlid ed. A. H o u r a n i , Leiden, 1959, p . 40.
31
See J . Puig, ' M a t e r i a l s o n Averroes' Circle', Journal of Near Eastern Studies, 51 ' 4
(1992), 241—60, p . 249. T h e presentation of A l m o h a d i s m as close t o Z a h i r i s m could have
been t h e result of the influence Ibn M a d a ' h a d in t h e c o u r t of the first A l m o h a d caliph
32
See S. A'rab, 'Mawqif al-muwahhidTn min kutub al-furu' wa-haml al-nas 'ala 1-
madhhab al-hazmf, Da'wat al-baqq, 249 (1985), 26-30.
33
This example coincides with one of the precepts imposed by Ibn YasTn, the founder
of the Almoravid movement see N. Levtzion, "Abd Allah b YasTn and the Almoravids',
in J R. Willis (ed.), Studies in West African Islamic History, vol. 1, London, 1977,
pp. 78-112, p. 86. The case was probably chosen as a direct attack against Almoravid
Mahkism.
34
See his biography in Ibn al-Abbar, al-Takmila li-Kitab al-Sila, ed F. Codera, 2
vols , Madrid, 1886 {BAH, vols. 5-6), No. 824; Ibn 'Abd al-Malik al-Marrakushl, al-
Dhayl wa-l-takmila, ed. I. 'Abbas, Beirut, 1973, vol 6, pp. 203-8, No. 597, 'U. Kahhala,
Mu'/am al-mu'allifin, 15 vols., Damascus, 1957-61, vol. 10, p 25. Ibn Zarqun accused
Ibn Rushd of having plagiarized the Bidaya. See on this issue the detailed study by
M 'A MakkT, 'Contnbucion de Averroes a la ciencia (uridica musulmana', Al encuentro
de Averroes, ed. A. Martinez Lorca, Madrid, 1993, pp 15—38.
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 235

react against Almohad attacks, as to his generation belonged other

outstanding MahkT jurists capable of defending Mahkism. 35 The caliph
'Abd al-Mu'min would have thus abandoned his project of burning
MalikT works not for political reasons, but because he was convinced
by solid arguments. The extent to which the Almohad talaba replaced
traditional scholars in positions related to Islamic law still awaits a
thorough examination. 36 Discontinuity with Almoravid legal policy is
shown by the fact that beginning with the caliphate of 'Abd al-Mu'min
we do not find the collections of fatawa that are so abundant in the
Almoravid period. At the same time, Almohad early emphasis on usul
al-fiqh is shown by the fact that Ibn Rushd al-HafTd wrote his

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Mukhtasar al-Mustasfa,37an abridgement of the work on legal methodo-
logy by al-GhazalT, during the caliphate of 'Abd al-Mu'min.
Very little is known about the legal policy of 'Abd al-Mu'min's
successor, Aba Ya'qub Yusuf (r. 558/1163-580/1184). As E. Fricaud has
shown, the Almohad talaba were educated in the Almohad doctrine,
but again it is not clear what the exact contents of that doctrine were.
In E. Fncaud's description, the talaba recited poetry, took part in
military expeditions, and performed mudhakara or speculative
debates.38 They studied the professions of faith of Ibn Tumart and the
other tracts compiled in his Kitab, of which the only preserved manu-
script was copied precisely during the caliphate of Abu Ya'qub Yusuf
(year 579/1171).39 Ibn Rushd al-HafTd, who might himself have been a
member of the talaba, wrote a commentary on Ibn Tumart's 'AqTda.
The Almohad caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf was inclined towards philo-

35
S. A ' r a b m e n t i o n s Abu 1-Qasim al-SuhaylT (d. 581/1185), ' A b d a l - H a q q al-IshbTlT
(Ibn al-Kharrat) (d. 582/1186), Abu 1-Qasim b. H u b a y s h (d. 584/1188), A b u Baler b. al-
J a d d (d. 586/1190), Abu 1-Hasan b K a w t h a r (d. 589/1193), A b u ' A b d Allah b al-
F a k h k h a r (d. 590/1194), Abu M u h a m m a d al-Hajari al-Sabff (d 591/1195), al-Sayqal (d.
598/1201), a n d Ibn Rushd al-HafTd (d. 595/1198). I a m n o t convinced t h a t all the ]unsts
m e n t i o n e d by A ' r a b considered themselves MahkT, as o p p o s e d to A l m o h a d , scholars
T h i s is especially the case of Ibn R u s h d al-HafTd, to w h o m I shall c o m e back later
36
The fuqaha' are quoted in Almohad sources as different from the talaba and as a
specific group in the Almohad court see Ibn Sahib al-Salat, Mann, transl., p. 191. M
Benouis is currently preparing his Ph.D thesis at the University of Lyon II on the |udicial
system during the Almohad period.
37
E d . J . - D . al-'AlawT, Beirut, 1994, review of A. E l a m r a m - J a m a l in Bulletin Critique
des Annales Islamologiques, 12 (1996), 1 1 8 - 2 0 .
38
See Fricaud, 'Les Talaba dans la societe almohade', p 361.
39
The first explicit mention of the Kitab by Ibn Tumart belongs to the year 560/1164.
see Ibn Sahib al-Salat, al-Mann bi-l-imama, ed. 'Abd al-HadT al-TazT, Beirut, 1964 (3rd
ed., 1987), pp. 161—2, transl. Huici, p. 60, where mention is made of 'aqidat al-tawhTd,
al-tahara, and A'azz ma yutlab. According to an internal reference found in the latter
work, part of its contents would have been written down in the year 515/1121, when
Ibn Tumart, during his stay in Aghmat, refused to obey the Almoravid emir's orders.
236 MARIBEL FIERRO

sophy, supporting for example Ibn Tufayl (d. 581/1185) and asking Ibn
Rushd to write commentaries on Aristotle.40 The information on the
legal policy of Abu Ya'qub Yusuf is limited to the legal activity of Ibn
Rushd al-Hafld and to the composition of his work al-Bidaya, to be
dealt with below.
It was during the caliphate of al-Mansur (580/1184-595/1198) that
MahkT writings were burnt, that the caliph visited Ibn Hazm's birthplace
and grave, and that Ibn BaqT (see below) was named qadt. It was also
during his reign that the talaba acquired more power.41 Al-Mansur tried
to lead prayers in person and to act as qadi. He acted in this way for
some months, until he grew angry because the cases presented to him

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were cases without any importance.42 'Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushi43
shows the caliph in conversation with the MahkT jurist Abu Bakr b. al-
Jadd.44 In that conversation the caliph complained that for every legal
question there were different opinions, with no way of knowing for
certain which was the true solution, so that the muqallid was unable
to decide the correct one to follow. Ibn al-Jadd tried to explain to the
caliph the reasons for this diversity of opinion (ikhtilaf),45 but the caliph
did not let him finish, stating that there was only, on the one hand, the
Qur'an and the tradition of the Prophet (specifically Abu Dawud's
Sunan), and, on the other hand, the sword. Al-Mansur is said to have
tried to substitute for the MalikI doctrine one that sometimes is identi-
fied with the Zahirl doctrine and sometimes with the HanbalT; more
generally, it is said that the third Almohad caliph tried to establish a
doctrine inspired directly by the Qur'an and the tradition of the Prophet.
He insisted on the old opposition between the ahl al-ra'y and the ahl

The unique manuscript is dated in the year 579/1171. To Ibn Tumart's writings such as
A'azz nta yutlab ('The most precious of what is sought', dealing with usiil al-fiqh),
tracts on ritual purity (tahara), prayer, the professions of faith . . (see note 7), the
Almohad caliph added an opuscule on phad.
40
The famous meeting between the caliph and Ibn Rushd took place between 548/1153
and 554/1157 see N. Morata, 'La presentacion de Averroes en la corte almohade', La
Ciudad de Dios, 153 (1941), 101-22.
41
See Fncaud, 'Lcs Talaba dans la societe almohade', p. 357.
42
See Fierro, 'Religion', p. 463.
43
Kitab al-mu'jib ft talkhts akhbar al-Maghrib, ed. R Dozy, 2nd ed., Leiden, 1881,
pp 202-3; transl A Huici Miranda, Tetuan, 1955, pp. 231-2.
44
See his biography in al-DabbT, Bughyat al-multamis, ed. F. Codera and J. Ribera,
Madrid, 1884-5 (BAH, vol 3), No. 181; Ibn al-Abbar, Takmtla, ed. Codera, No. 825,
Ibn 'Abd al-Mahk al-Marrakushl, Dhayl, vol. 6, pp. 323-6, No 840, Kahhala, vol
10, p. 252.
45
A treatise of Christian polemic against Islam, written in all probability in the
Iberian peninsula during the sixth/twelfth century, is entitled Contranetas alfohca, that
is 'The Divergence of Opinion of Muslim Jurists' see Fierro, 'Religion', p 536. The
existence of tkhttlaf appears thus as the central legal issue of the period
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 237

al-hadith, the former represented in al-Andalus by the MalikTs and the

latter by the Shafi'Ts and the ZahirTs. It is in this context that the
nomination of Ibn BaqT4* as qadi should be interpreted. Ibn BaqT was
the descendant of BaqT b. Makhlad (d. 276/889), who had been one of
the protagonists in the conflict between the ahl al-ra'y and the ahl al-
hadith during the third/ninth century in al-Andalus under the
Umayyads.47 The persecution of BaqT b. Makhlad by the MalikTs is
recalled in Almohad sources48 and the nomination of his descendant as
Almohad qadi had a clear symbolic value and meaning. In what might
have appeared as an act of revenge for the defeat of BaqT b. Makhlad
and the scant influence his works had in the development of AndalusT

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intellectual life, the Almohad caliph ordered MalikT writings to be burnt
in Fez, after having rescued the passages from the Qur'an and the
tradition of the Prophet, and after having excepted Malik b. Anas'
Muwatta', as it was considered to be a work of hadith. Al-Mansur
entrusted al-DhahabT (554/1159-601/1204), an expert on 'ulum al-awa'il,
with the supervision of the qddis and their legal opinions {shurd wa
fatwd), 'clearly a very important position, in which he, in fact, oversaw
the Malikite faqths and approved the criteria applied in the courts. Such
control could not be seen with sympathy by the Mahkites, and when
the mthna took place against Averroes, DhahabT went into hiding until
the storm was over.'49
The prohibition of dealing with ra'y under threat of severe punish-
ments was accompanied by support given to the traditionists. The caliph
ordered the compiling of traditions on prayer extracted from ten hadith
collections,50 in imitation of the collection of traditions dealing with

46
A h m a d b . YazTd b . ' A b d a l - R a h m a n b . A h m a d , k n o w n as A b u 1-Qasim I b n Baqi
al-QumibT (537/1142-625/1228). see ' A b d al-Wahid al-MarrakushT, Mu'/ib, p . 207, Ibn
al-Abbar, Takmila, ed Cairo, No. 292, al-Ru'aynl, Barnama;, ed. I. Shabbuh, Damascus,
1381/1962, p. 50; al-DhahabT, Styar a'lam al-nubala", 23 vols., Beirut, 1401/1981-
1405/1985, vol. 22, pp 274-7, No. 156, Ibn Ibrahim, al-Vlam bi-man halla Marrakush
wa-Aghmat mm al-a'lam, 10 vols., Rabat, 1974-83, vol. 2, pp 135-6, No. 165, Kahhala,
vol. 2, p 206.
47
See M Fierro, 'The Introduction of Hadith in al-Andalus (2nd/8th-3rd/9th
Centuries)', Der Islam, 66 (1989), 68-93
48
See Ibn Tumlus (d 620/1223), Kttab al-madkhal li-sma'at al-mantiq, ed. and transl.
M. Asin Palacios, Introduccton al arte de la logica por Abentomlus de Alctra, Madrid,
1916, pp. 10-11/13-14.
49
Puig, 'Materials', p. 248.
50
Those collections were those by al-Bukhan, Muslim, al-Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud and
al-Nasa'T, Malik's Muwatta', the Sunan by al-Bazzar, al-DaraqutnT and al-Bayhaql, and
Ibn Abl Shayba's Musnad see 'Abd al-Wahid al-Marrakushl, Mu'/ib, p. 202. BaqT b.
Makhlad's work on hadith was not included, although it had continued being transmitted
by his descendants.
238 MARIBEL FIERRO

ritual purity prepared by Ibn Tumart.51 The hadith collection on prayer

was dictated by the caliph to the people, with rewards to those who
learnt it by heart. It was then that one of the most important jurists,
Abu Yahya Ibn al-Mawwaq (d. 599/1203),52 an expert in hadith but
also in masa'tl, decided to compile Ibn Hazm's legal questions and
present them to the caliph, who had declared thafhe wanted to replace
MalikT doctrine with that of Ibn Hazm. Ibn al-Mawwaq's compilation,
so we are told, convinced the caliph that Ibn Hazm's doctrine was
unacceptable.53 This story has evident similarities with the one that was
recorded about 'Abd al-Mu'min and the MalikT scholars.
Al-Mansur objected that the talaba devoted themselves to studying

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Ibn Tumart's works instead of the Qur'an and the traditions of the
Prophet.S4 The philosophers had great influence in al-Mansur's court,
although by the end of his caliphate Ibn Rushd was publicly condemned
as a heretic and exiled to Lucena;55 at this time, books dealing with
rational sciences were burnt, excepting those dealing with medicine,
mathematics, and astronomy (the latter because they served for estab-
lishing the times of prayer and the qibla).
Did Almohad policy against the MalikTs aim at eliminating MalikT
hegemony, thereby replacing one school by another (for example, by
Zahirism)? There were attempts in that sense, but they did not succeed.
Did Almohad policy against the MalikTs aim at bringing MalikT doctrine
closer to that of other schools of law and at imposing the use of
ijtihad on the MalikTs, thereby reforming Malikism in the direction
followed by, for example, reformers such as al-TurtushT, Abu Bakr b.
al-'ArabT,56 and Ibn Rushd al-Jadd, Averroes's grandfather?57 The
51
See note 3 9 .
52
See his b i o g r a p h y in Ibn al-Abbar, Takmda, ed. A Bel a n d M . Ben C h e n e b , Alger,
1920, No 596, Ibn al-Qadl, ]adhwat al-tqtibas ft dhikr man halla mm a'lam madinat
Fas, 2 vols., Rabat, 1973-4, vol. 1, p. 106, No. 27, GAL, SI, 664.
53
See A'rab, 'Mawqif al-muwahhidln', p. 29; A Huici Miranda, Htstorta politica del
impeno almohade, 2 vols., Tetuan, 1956—7, vol. 1, p. 388
54
See ' A b d al-Wahid al-MarrakushT, Mu'/ib, p . 212/243.
55
The latest studies on this issue are Puig's and Fncaud's (see notes 30 and 28) Ibn
Rushd's fall from grace has usually been interpreted as the result of the fight between
Almohads and Malikls. However, it might also be that it was the result of internal fights
among the Almohads themselves, more specifically between the descendants of the first
Almohads and the caliph's talaba. To this might point the anecdote that shows the
caliph inviting Ibn Rushd to sit in the place reserved to the descendant of a companion
of 'Abd al-Mu'min see Urvoy, Averroes, p. 177.
56
Al-TurtushT, who is mentioned as Ibn Tumart's teacher in Alexandria, was an
important reformer of Malikism and so was Abu Bakr b. al-'Arabr see my study
mentioned in note 4.
57
Ibn Rushd al-Jadd (d 520/1126) appears in his extant legal works as a dedicated
reformer of traditional AndalusT Malikism. His effort was directed, for example, at the
adaptation to the methodology of usiil al-fiqh of early legal material found in MalikT
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 239

Almohads had a vested interest in exaggerating the adherence of MalikTs

to taqttd and in hiding the fact that inside Mahkism there were different
trends, some of them with intellectual agendas that, given their stress
on usul al-fiqh, were close to Almohad concerns. Ibn Tumart in his
Kitab, when defending 'ada or custom (i.e. that which is guaranteed by
the perception of the senses), gives as an example Madinan tradition,
guaranteed by the fact that it was in Madina that the words and deeds
of the Prophet were most faithfully preserved. Now Mahkism was,
among the four canonical legal schools, the one identified with Madinan
tradition. Almohad doctrine, therefore, seems to have been influenced
by what might be labelled 'reformist' Mahkism. Another possibility is

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that the Kitab attributed to Ibn Tumart reflects a stage of Almohadism
when the impossibility of getting rid of Mahkism forced the Almohad
caliphs to reach a compromise with it.58
'Abd al-Mu'min did not favour the MalikTs, as shown for example
by the fact that he chose the ZahirT Ibn Mada' as teacher of his
children.59 It is not clear if the reason for this antagonism was primarily
doctrinal or political. Malik! qadls were his main opponents in al-
Andalus, as in the major towns they had seized power and become
rulers after expelling the Almoravids.60 But once 'Abd al-Mu'min occu-
pied the peninsula, he must have realized that he could not easily do
without the MalikTs. He had his own elites, the talaba, and his support
of the philosophers shows that philosophy and speculative reasoning
were among the possible developments of Ibn Tumart's madhhab fikr.
But legal activities seem to have continued to be performed by the
MalikTs outside Almohad circles and hierarchy. Ibn Rushd's legal work
al-Bidaya, begun under Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, shows that Mahkism was
not replaced by another legal school, but also that the Almohad caliph
was against Almoravid Mahkism. Al-Mansur was the caliph who acted
most clearly against the MalikTs and in favour of the traditionists,
although he had to face the fact that the MalikTs knew how to defend
their positions and counter-attack those of their adversaries. Al-Mansur

compilations of masa'il, such as al-'Utbfs (d. 255/868) Mustakhra/a and Sahnun's (d

240/854) Mudawwana, as shown by the commentaries he wrote of both works Kitab
al-bayan, ed. M Haj]T et al., 22 vols., 2nd ed., Beirut, 1988—91, and al-Muqadditnat al-
mumahhidat, in al-Mudawwana al-kubra, 8 vols. in 4, Cairo, 1342—5/1906—7.
58
M. Fletcher has pointed out that part of the writings attributed to Ibn Tumart
have suffered the influence of the AndalusT context and that there has been a process of
redaction of those writings. In particular, Fletcher considers that Ibn Tumart's 'AqTda,
as distinct from the Murshtdas, shows a later redaction in an AndalusT context. See her
article quoted in note 10 and M. Fletcher, 'al-Andalus and North Africa in the Almohad
Ideology', in S. Jayyusi (ed.), The Legacy of Muslim Spam, Leiden, 1992, pp. 235-58
59
See note 31.
60
See Fierro, 'Ibn Tumart et al-Andalus'.
240 MARIBEL FIERRO

is also said to have been the first to manifest doubts about the figure
of Ibn Tumart. Some thirty years later the Almohad caliph al-Ma'mun
(624/1227-629/1232) promulgated a decree officially abandoning
Almohad doctrine: mention of the mahdl was removed from the coins,
in prayer, and in official correspondence; the innovations introduced
into the call to prayer were also eliminated; it was forbidden to talk
about the infallibility of the mahdr, and the proclamation of Ibn Tumart
as mahdi was criticized, on the grounds that there was no other mabdi
except Jesus. It was then that on coins the formula al-mahdl imdmund
was altered to al-Qur'dn imamuna.61

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We have seen how Ibn Tumart, according to his Kitdb, appears
foremost as a theologian and an usuli jurist devoted to establishing how
man can achieve true knowledge of God's law, by means that give a
decisive role to reason. Ibn Tumart criticizes previous methodological
procedures as unsuccessful in reaching true knowledge and responsible
for the production of ikhtildf. This criticism implied a threat to the old
and established legal schools. Ibn Tumart's rejection of the doctrine of
kull mujtahid musTb, i.e. of the prevailing concept that the legal opinions
advanced by every mujtahid are to be considered equally right, seems
to imply that Ibn Tumart's mahdism and his being imam ma'sum,
together with the ijtthdd of the Almohad caliphs and their scholars,
would provide the right answers to legal problems. We are thus entitled
to ask in what Almohad jurisprudence consisted. No comprehensive
study of Almohad jurisprudence exists so far and the general tendency
is to consider, with Watt, that the Almohads lacked the intellectual
vitality to produce a new corpus of law.62 An exception would be a
well-known legal work written under the Almohads, Ibn Rushd al-
HafTd's Biddya, which was described by R. Brunschvig as a highly
original legal writing. In the next section I will concentrate on it to see
what it has to teach us concerning Almohad jurisprudence.

3. IBN RUSHD AL-HAFID AND HIS BIDAYAT AL-

MUJTAHID
Ibn Rushd al-HafTd (d. 595/1198), known in the Latin west as Averroes,
is the author of a legal treatise entitled Bidayat al-mujtahid wa-nihdyat
61
See Fierro, 'Religion', p 448.
62
Watt, 'Philosophy and Theology under the Almohads', p 103. He adds: 'Perhaps
they did not feel the need of any far-reaching changes and were content with the
attainment of Berber sovereignty. The legal teaching of Ibn Tumart, however, enabled
them to hold that the final decision in legal matters was in the hand of men friendly to
the government and not in the hand of the Mahkite scholars, who were presumably
largely of Arab descent' The study of Almohad innovations that I am currently preparing
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 241
63
al-muqtastd that he began writing under the second Almohad caliph.
In his classic study of this work, R. Brunschvig64 explained that it
belongs to the genre of legal tkhttlaf and that Ibn Rushd did not limit
himself to recording the legal divergences among the four schools of
law, but mentions also the ZahirTs,65 the founders of old schools of law
that eventually disappeared, as well as Muslims of the first generations.
References to KhanjTs and ShT'Ts are almost non-existent. Ibn Rushd
does not show any preference for a specific school of law. Sometimes
he is in favour of a Malik! solution, sometimes of a Shafi'T or Hanafl
one. Rarely does he propose new solutions, and when he does so, he
explicitly states that the introduction of innovations is not correct. The

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Bidaya is striking not only for the absence of a clear-cut inclination
towards one school of law or another, but also for its clarity of exposi-
tion, its freedom of thought, and its concern with logic and rationality.66
Ibn Rushd mentions in the Bidaya his intention to write a work on
furu' following the Malik! school of law, stating that it is the school
followed in practice in al-Andalus. It is unclear if this is to be understood
as meaning that it was the school followed in his own time or followed
in the past. It is also unclear if the work was intended to be used in
practice or whether it was intended to show how Mahkls had departed
from true doctrine. Ibn Rushd had been educated in the MahkT school
of law and belonged to a family of outstanding Malik! scholars,67 but
this background does not show in his choice of or preference for certain
legal solutions. The Bidaya proves that his knowledge of Mahkism was
deeper than that of the other legal schools, but also that he does not

shows that the Almohads did try to make 'far-reaching changes' in Islamic law according
to western Islamic standards.
63
There are a number of Arabic editions of this text The best is the one revised by
'Abd al-Hallm Muhammad 'Abd al-HalTm and 'Abd al-Rahman Hasan Mahmud, 2
vols., Cairo, 1975.
64
R. Brunschvig, 'Averroes |unste', Etudes d'Onentaltsme dedtees a la memoire de
Levt-Provencal, vol.1, P a n s , 1962, p p 35—68; repr. in R. Brunschvig, Etudes d'tslamolo-
gie, ed. A. M T u r k i , 2 vols., Paris, 1976, vol. 2, p p . 167-200.
65
For the differences a n d similarities with Z a h i n s m , see Brunschvig, 'Averroes ] u n s t e ' ,
p. 52, note 47; p 5 3 , note 50, p . 54 (for criticism of the ZahirTs); p 5 7 , n o t e 64 (for the
difficulty of equating too much Almohad and Zahm doctrine, especially given Almohad
acceptance of qtyas); pp 58, 60. See also Brunschvig's articles mentioned in note 21 and
A. M. Turki, 'La Place d'Averroes junste dans l'histoire du mahkisme et de I'Espagne
musulmane', Multiple Averroes Actes du Colloque Internationale organise a ['occasion
du 850e annwersaire de la naissance- d'Averroes, Pans 20—23 septetnbre 1976, ed J.
Jolivet, Paris, pp. 33—43, pp. 39—40, repr in A M. Turki, Theologtens et junstes de
I'Espagne musulmane: aspects polemiques, Paris, 1982, pp. 283—93.
66
The sources of the Bidaya are still awaiting a thorough study. To be remembered
in this context is the accusation of plagiarism made against Ibn Rushd see note 34
67
See note 57 on his grandfather, Ibn Rushd al-Jadd.
242 MARIBEL FIERRO

accord it a privileged status. The aim of the Bidaya is explained in the

title: 'The beginning for him who is striving towards a personal judge-
ment and the end for him who contents himself with received know-
ledge'. It is thus designed for facilitating the use and practice of ijtihad.6S
The Bidaya is a work of usul al-fiqh, of legal methodology, its principal
aim being to understand the reasons for the disagreement among jurists,
and in writing it Ibn Rushd shows a remarkable concern for
objectivity.69
It is not clear whether Ibn Rushd wrote his work before or after
having been named qadi7° He started writing the Bidaya in 564/1167-8,

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around the time that he was named qadi of Seville (565/1169). R.
Brunschvig thought that the composition of the Bidaya, because of the
competence that it showed, might have been instrumental in the
Almohad caliph Aba Ya'qub YQsuf b. 'Abd al-Mu'min's (558/1163-
580/1184) decision to name him qadi. Brunschvig also indicates that Ibn
Rushd is referred to in the book as qadi (qala 1-qadJ), which might be
due to the fact that it took him twenty years to finish it; it was completed
on 9 Jumada I 584/6 July 1188.71 It can then be concluded that it was
the nomination to the position of qadi that stimulated Ibn Rushd to
write the Bidaya. It is not surprising that a philosopher like Ibn Rushd
should decide to write a legal work, contrary to what some scholars
have felt. For Ibn Rushd, religions are obligatory because they can lead
everyone to knowledge by a common path, whereas philosophy is open
only to a small number of persons. Religion is basically law, and
political power is crucial in ensuring its application. To attack religion

68
Brunschvig says 'son ambition dans la Bidaya est de fournir une documentation
de base, elementaire en un sens, mais suggestive et suffisante, eclairante pour tous, et
surtout qui permettre de deboucher sur Vtgtthad'. 'Averroes juriste', p. 41.
69
T h e Btdaya w a s n o t t h e only w o r k written by I b n R u s h d o n usul al-fiqh I have
already mentioned his summary of al-Ghazall's Mustasfa, written during the caliphate
of 'Abd al-Mu'min. Both his Kashf 'an manahij al-adtlla and his Fast al-tnaqal are
concerned with related issues. See on the former D. Urvoy, Pensers d'al-Andalus. La vie
intellectuelle a Cordoue et Seville au temps des empires berberes (fin Xle siecle-debut
Xllle siecle), Toulouse, 1990, p. 182.
70
H e w a s n a m e d qadi of Seville in 565/1169 a n d qadi oi C o r d o b a in 567/1171, a n d
seems t o have been n a m e d qadi of Seville a second time in 575/1179. Ibn R u s h d ' s
commentaries on Aristotle were undoubtedly rewarded by the Almohad caliphs, but his
livelihood derived mainly from his position as a court physician and from his legal
activities as a judge
71
The Kttab al-ha)j was not included in the first redaction. As Brunschvig indicates,
no explanation is given for this absence. However, it is well known that Ibn Rushd's
grandfather had considered the duty of jihad more important than that of the pilgrimage,
given the difficult situation in the Iberian peninsula owing to the Christian threat. I will
deal with the issue of the Almohad position regarding the pilgrimage in my forthcoming
study of Almohad innovations.
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 243

is to attack social life. Averroes's Islamic state is based on reason, and

religion is used to help the majority understand the implications which
reason has for them and for their lives as members of a community.72
Whereas Ibn Tufayl believed that the system of ideas which he held to
be true was incapable of bringing about any superior ordering of the
society in which he lived, and that ordinary people are not capable of
the highest and truest religion, Ibn Rushd felt that the conflict between
philosophy and revealed religion was only apparent and not real.73
Ibn Rushd opposes those who want to introduce doubts into the
religious beliefs of the people, and those who try to explain religion
with demonstrative or dialectic arguments rather than the rhetorical

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forms of presentation that the people can understand. If religion is
necessary, law is also necessary and philosophers should pay attention
to it. This view does not stop Ibn Rushd from criticizing the jurists.
His criticism is similar in certain ways to that made by al-GhazalT, in
the sense that jurists are considered to have forgotten the ethical dimen-
sions of their discipline. Criticism is also directed against those jurists
who are too attached to the opinions of their predecessors (shiddat al-
taqlTd), those who measure knowledge by quantity, not quality, and
who are like shoemakers who accumulate huge quantities of shoes of
different sizes but are incapable of making a shoe of the size required.74
I have expressed elsewhere the opinion that Almohadism should not
be understood as a doctrine fixed in Ibn Tumart's times, but as a
doctrine evolving according to the political necessities of the Almohad
caliphs.75 The composition of Ibn Rushd's Bidaya should be considered
the response to a certain stage of that evolution.
72
See E. T o r n e r o , 'La funcion sociopolitica de la religion segiin Averroes', Anales del
Seminano de Histona de la Ftlosofia, 4 (1984), 7 5 - 8 2 ; J L a n g h a d e and D. Mallet, ' D r o i t
et philosophic au Xlle siecle d a n s al-Andalus Averroes (Ibn R u s d ) ' , Revue de I'Ocadent
musulman et de la Mediterranee, 40 (1985), 1 0 3 - 2 1 . See also Urvoy, Ibn Rushd, p p . 6 4 - 5 .
73
W a t t (see articles m e n t i o n e d in note 18) concludes that Ibn R u s h d ' s position can
be taken as an indication t h a t in his time it was the s a m e persons w h o practised b o t h
disciplines
74
Ibn Rushd thus states t h a t those w h o called themselves ]unsts in his time (mut-
afaqqihat zatndnt-na) believed t h a t 'le plus verse d a n s le fiqh est celui qui a a p p n s p a r
coeur le plus grand n o m b r e d e questions, r a p p e l a n t ainsi les gens qui croient q u e le
bottler est celui qui a chez lui des chaussures en n o m b r e , non point celui qui est c a p a b l e
de les fabriquer. O r , d'evidence, qui a chez soi des chaussures en n o m b r e doit s ' a t t e n d r e
a recevoir un ]our la visite d ' u n client q u i , ne t r o u v a n t pas la chaussure a son pied,
recourra necessairement a un f a b n c a n t d e chaussures, c'est-a-dire a q u e l q u ' u n qui
f a b n q u e p o u r c h a q u e pied une chaussure qui lui soit a d a p t e e ' Brunschvig, 'Averroes
) u n s t e ' , p . 56 (quoting t h e Bidaya, Kttdb al-sarf) T h e rendering of this passage in Ibn
R u s h d , The Distinguished Jurist's Primer, transl Imran Ahsan Khan Nyazee a n d
M u h a m m a d Abdul Rauf, 2 vols., R e a d i n g , 1994, vol 1, p . x x v n , does not m a k e the
p o i n t clear.
75
See Fierro, ' R e l i g i o n ' , p p . 445—6.
244 MARIBEL FIERRO

Ibn Rushd wrote the Bidaya between 564/1167 and 584/1188, during
the caliphates of Abu Ya'qub Yusuf (558/1163-580/1184) and Abu Yusuf
Ya'qub al-Mansur (580/1184-595/1199). One would expect to find refer-
ences to Ibn Tumart's Kitab, especially to the section entitled A'azz ma
yutlab where the MahdT's legal methodology is described in detail. It is
not merely that there is no mention of this section or of the rest of Ibn
Tumart's work; Ibn Rushd actually favours certain positions that are
in disagreement with Ibn Tumart. For example, he finds justification
for the doctrine of kull mujtahid musib,76 explicitly rejected by Ibn
Tumart. This lack of reference to Ibn Tumart's doctrine could be the
result of the process of de-almohadization of Almohad sources that

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might also have affected the Bidaya, but only a thorough study of the
Bidaya manuscripts will provide firm proof for this hypothesis.77 An
alternative explanation might be that, either by the time of the second
and third Almohad caliphs or at a certain point in that period, Ibn
Tumart's Kttab came to be considered as lacking in authority in the
writing of Islamic law78 and therefore that Ibn Rushd could openly
disagree with Ibn Tumart's writings such as A'azz ma yutlab. But the
fact that it was deemed unnecessary to mention Ibn Tumart in a work
of usiil al-fiqh does not imply that his message was lost: if the core of
Ibn Tumart's teaching was the need to go back to the original message
of the Qur'an and the Sunna and to interpret it according to a methodo-
logy which ensured true knowledge, by acting in accordance with it,
Ibn Tumart's teachings were in fact being followed, Ibn Tumart's 'guide
and protection from error' being now the privilege of the caliphs.

76
See Brunschvig, 'Averroes juriste', p p . 4 5 - 6 , 5 3 , 56. O n the issue of kull mujtahid
mustb, see L a n g h a d e and Mallet, ' D r o i t et p h i l o s o p h i e ' , p . 113
77
Urvoy, Averroes, p . 97, indicates t h a t in o n e of the first w o r k s written by Ibn
R u s h d under the A l m o h a d s , he refers in the p r o l o g u e t o al-imam al-ma'siim al-mahdi.
T h i s formula does n o t appear in later w o r k s . O n his part, A. A. Yate, 'Ibn Rushd as
J u r i s t ' , Ph D. thesis, C a m b r i d g e University, 1991 (unpublished), p . 34 m e n t i o n s that in
the existing editions a n d manuscripts there are serious errors and inconsistencies 'at
times so n u m e r o u s and so glaring t h a t the presence of interpolations c a n n o t be ruled
out at several points in the t e x t ' H . Benali 'Les formes d ' a r g u m e n t a t i o n d ' l b n Rusd
d a n s la " B i d a y a " ' , M e m o i r e de D.E.A., Universite B o r d e a u x III, 1995 (unpublished),
says (p. 25, note) t h a t the formula ' m a y G o d have mercy on h i m ' a p p e a r s only after the
m e n t i o n of M a l i k . In my opinion, this might be an indication of d e - a l m o h a d i z a t i o n . As
regards the e x t a n t MSS. of the Bidaya, in GAL, SI, 836 only t w o are m e n t i o n e d (Tunis
and QarawiyyTn), but the n u m b e r can be increased (Esconal, N o . 1888; B i b h o t h e q u e
N a t i o n a l e P a n s , N o 5403). See also G. C . A n a w a t i , Mu'allafat Ibn Rushd, Alger, 1978,
p . 327. Copies have been found in M a u r i t a n i a a n d even in Yemen (al-Jami' al-saghlr,
S a n ' a ' ) . Urvoy, Averroes, p . 179 m e n t i o n s t h a t the Bidaya is t a u g h t n o w a d a y s even
in M a d i n a .
78
But the only extant manuscript was copied in the year 579/1171, and Ibn Rushd
wrote the Bidaya between 564/1167-8 and 584/1188.
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 245

The Almohad character of the Bidaya has been detected in its support
of tjtihad and of rational argumentation (dalit al-'aql), as shown in the
introduction, where the need for qiyas (supported by Ibn Tumart in his
A'azz ma yutlab contrary to Zahiri doctrine) is forcefully defended in
the cases when the legislator has not specified the legal qualifications
(ahkam): 'since the situations that may arise between people are infinite
in number, whereas the texts, actions and tacit approvals of the Prophet
are finite in number, and it is impossible for what is infinite to be
exactly matched by what is finite'.79 When the obvious meaning of a
formal text is contradicted by a qiyas, it is possible to resort to a
figurative interpretation (ta'wtl) of the text, on which there must be

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agreement: the decision is left to the discernment, the intellectual 'taste'
{dhawq 'aqtt) of the jurist.80
No advisers of Ibn Rushd are mentioned in his activity as qadi: the
mushawarun jurists who had been such a characteristic feature of the
AndalusT legal system seem to be marginal or even absent in Almohad
times. As a qadi working for the Almohads, Ibn Rushd must have
displayed the eclecticism among the different legal schools that is charac-
teristic of his Bidaya and that derives from his exercise of ijtihad. Ibn
Rushd says in the Bidaya that he wrote the work for himself.81 Even if
this were true and not the result of a hypothetical de-almohadization
of the work, Ibn Rushd was named qadi by the Almohad caliph and
therefore in writing the Bidaya he must have had in mind that he was
the qadi of the Almohads. The patronage of the Almohad caliph is
therefore implied in the work, as it is in his philosophical commentaries.
I have mentioned how the caliph al-Mansur wanted to act as qadi and
also that he entrusted al-Dhahabl (554/1159-601/1204), an expert on
'ulum al-awd'd active in Ibn Rushd's circle, with the supervision of the
qadis and their legal opinions (shiira wa-fatwa).92 Would it be far-
fetched to imagine that Ibn Rushd could have written the Bidaya in

79
Y. Dutton, 'The Introduction to Ibn Rushd's Btdayat al-mujtahtd', Islamic Law
and Society, 1 2 (1994), 188-205, p. 197. See also Langhade/Mallet, 'Droit et philoso-
phie', p. 115.
80
Cf MakkT, ' C o n t n b u c i o n d e Averroes', p p . 31—2. T o note t h e similarity with the
use of dhawq ('taste', 'fruitional experience') by the Sufis see E. T o r n e r o , 'La filosofia',
in El retroceso territorial de al-Andalus, vol 8 2 of t h e Histona de Espana fundada por
R Menendez Pidal, M a d r i d Espasa C a l p e , 1997, p p . 5 9 0 - 1 .
81
' M y intention in this b o o k is t o affirm {uthbtta) for myself, by w a y of reminder,
those points of the law (masa'il al-ahkam) about which there is agreement and those
about which there is dispute, together with their proofs (adilla), and to point out the
differences between them in a way that will highlight the basic principles and rules to
be applied to those cases (masa'il) on which the sharfa is silent which might confront
a mujtahtd' Dutton, 'The Introduction to Ibn Rushd's Btdayat al-Mujtahid\ p. 196.
82
See note 49.
246 MARIBEL FIERRO

order to facilitate both the activity of the caliph as a qddi and that of
al-Dhahabl, in the sense of helping them to determine what the correct
doctrine was? If this hypothesis is followed, there are interesting
consequences.
In the Btddya Ibn Rushd states that he is interested in dealing only
with the fundamental issues (usiil, qawd'id) that might serve as general
regulations {qdnun, dustur), as well as with original questions (umma-
hdt) from which the solutions of secondary questions are derived.83
Ijtihdd has to be exercised, but those who did so in the past reached
different solutions. What if those who exercise ijtihdd are ruled by and
depend on a caliph who is the inheritor of a mahdt and imam ma'sum}**

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It is not often in the history of Islamic societies that the caliphs or
rulers have tried to impose a religious or ideological uniformity. The
'Abbasids attempted it, interfering with religious dogma that was con-
sidered the domain of the 'ulamd' and using the mihna to eliminate
their adversaries. Before the episode of the imposition of belief in khalq
al-Qur'dn by the 'Abbasids, Ibn al-Muqaffa' (d. 139/756) had suggested
to the 'Abbasid caliph al-Mansur, in his Risdlat al-sahdba, that he could
strengthen his legitimacy and his government by preparing a codification
of laws and legal decrees and by uniting under his authority the different
opinions of the jurists: 'if the Commander of the Believers should see
fit to decree that these cases and different norms (siyar) be brought
before him in a book together with the explanation and argument of
every scholar on the basis of the sunna or qiyds, the Commander of
the Believers could examine them and give his decision in each case
according to the inspiration (dhdm).'ss
The promotion of a legal codification implied the notion of cahphal
authority over ideology and doctrine and this notion was an attack
against traditional 'ulamd'. In spite of the existence of standard texts
and manuals, law was 'jurists' law' in the sense that it was not codified
but rather derived from the jurists and not from texts legislated by the
83
T u r k i , ' L a Place d'Averroes ) u n s t e ' , p . 37 (basing himself o n Brunschvig, 'Averroes
] u n s t e ' , p . 41). A very similar objective led Ibn Rushd in writing his Kulhyyat ft l-tibb
see Urvoy, Averroes, p 1 0 3 .
84
The Almohad concept and presentation of the caliph still await a thorough study.
In verses by the Almohad poet Abu Hafs al-AghmatT, the caliph is described as the
secret of God {sirr Allah, a formula that appears in other poems), as the external part
of His signs {zahirat dyati-hi), and as being known by God (wa-huwa 'inda Allah
ma'lum), adding 'submit to him, abandon your opinions and follow the judgement
(hukm) of the imam. In religion there is no arbitrage (fa-ma ft1-dTn tahklm)'. See al-
MaqqarT, Azhar al-nyad, 5 vols., Rabat, 1978-80, vol 2, p. 363.
85
Ibn al-Muqaffa', 'Risala ft 1-sahaba', in M. Kurd 'All (ed.), Rasa'tl al-bulagha',
Cairo, 1946, pp. 136-7.1 quote the translation by M. M. al-A'zamT, On Schacht's Origins
of Muhammadan Jurisprudence, Riyadh, 1989, p. 42
 THE LEGAL POLICIES OF THE ALMOHAD CALIPHS 247

state. The doctrine attributed to Ibn Tumart went against this state of
things (he rejected the doctrine of kull mujtahid muslb), the Almohad
caliphs were against the existence of tkhttlaf (no collection of fatawa
was compiled under the Almohads), and they created new elites directly
dependent on the caliphs. My hypothesis is that Ibn Rushd's Btdaya
might have been an attempt to achieve something similar to what Ibn
al-Muqaffac had suggested, that is, a first step (collection of different
legal opinions) towards a further stage (election on the part of the
caliph of certain solutions which would eventually be codified).86

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4. C O N C L U S I O N S

Research on Ibn Tumart and the Almohads has always to take into
account that what the sources tell us about them has suffered both the
evolution of the Almohad movement itself and the 'de-almohadization'
that took place after the failure of Almohadism. Ibn Tumart's mahdism,
regardless of its origin and the moment in which it became part of the
Almohad movement, appears to me to have been a means to solve
certain problems the Almohads had to face. Those problems were the
need for a figure who would re-establish a more direct contact between
believers and God and therefore guarantee the correctness of the
reordering of knowledge and society that the Almohads supported; a
reordering that, in its turn, legitimized the need for the new Almohad
elites and the Almohad caliphs. In their search for an alternative to the
establishment they wanted to destroy, they tried different possibilities,
especially those that were provided by the history of the Islamic west.
I am referring to those intellectual traditions that had been marginalized
in the past: BaqT b. Makhlad and the ahl al-hadtth (who could be
considered 'HanbalTs'), and Ibn Hazm and Zahirism. But Mahkism was
too ingrained by then in the identity of western Islam to be easily
expunged by a movement which was, in many ways, 'nationalistic'. At
the same time, some MalikT scholars showed their willingness to be
part of the new regime by demonstrating that Mahkism was closer to
Qur'an and Sunna than the alternatives being attempted. Their influence
86
Yate seems to have thought along similar lines when he says 'Was the Bidaya, with
its deliberate avoidance of any overt support for one madhhab over another, part of a
programme to unite the madhhabs* Was it a work of usiil which might potentially
contain the Muslim nation under one universal )undical system? .. Although Ibn Rushd
does not make any explicit announcements concerning the establishment of a unified
system of law it does seem to be an inevitable consequence of both his own juridical
thought and also the Almohad's aversion to the MalikT madhhab in particular and the
East in general, their call for a return to foundations and the uncompromising vision of
their founder' Ibn Rushd, p. 60, note 258
248 MARIBEL FIERRO

was decisive and this is why Ibn Tumart's Kitab appears to propose a
'reformed Mahkism' and why Ibn Rushd's Bidaya gives so much room
to Malik! solutions.
For some time the Almohad caliphs tried to develop the implications
that Ibn Tumart's mahdism had for their own role in the Muslim
community. Their obsession with the existence of tkhtilaf and the need
to put an end to it was determined by the idea that the renewal of
religion represented by the MahdT must by itself bring about knowledge
of truth in a direct way, as it had re-established the link with the sources
of revelation. In order to avoid the appearance of divergent opinions
that had followed the death of the Prophet, Qur'an and Sunna had to

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be interpreted by means that would produce certain knowledge. But
to place tjtihad in the hands of scholars was to risk again the production
of zann, 'opinion', and not necessary knowledge. It is in this context
that I have proposed that the Almohad caliphs might have contemplated
producing a unified corpus of law by choosing themselves the solution
deemed to be the best, a choice that would be determined by that
'inspiration' which, according to Ibn al-Muqaffa\ was the prerogative
of caliphs. Ibn Rushd's Btdayat al-mujtahid would have been written
in order to offer the caliph the different opinions arrived at by the great
mujtahids of the past. It took Ibn Rushd twenty years to write the
Bidaya. During that time Almohadism did not stay fixed. Therefore the
Bidaya can also be understood as proposing another possible develop-
ment: ijtihad, if performed according to the rules followed by Ibn
Rushd, guarantees the production of certain knowledge. The imam
ma'sum is, on the one hand, opposed to the mujtahidun among the
Sunn! scholars whose efforts at understanding revelation give rise to
divergent religious opinions. On the other hand, Ibn Tumart in his
Kitab appears to accept the inevitability of opinion in the practical
application of legal principles, while insisting that the principles them-
selves must have objective validity. He thus opens the way for the
reappearance of scholars who will exercise ijtihdd in that practical
application of legal principles. The issue in this case was to control the
scholars, and that would have been the role of al-Dhahabl, entrusted
with the supervision of the qadls and their legal opinions.87
87
I wish to thank M. Cook for his comments.