166 – al-Tamimi, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Ḥasan*

He was the Muftī of Ceuta and its judge, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿĪsā ibn Ḥasan (1) al-Tamimi, the North-African, a native of Ceuta, belonging to the Mālikī school.

He studied under Abū Muḥammad al-Masīlī, whose company he kept constantly, and under Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-ʿAjūz.

He auditioned the Ṣaḥīḥ of al-Bukhārī in Almería at the hands of Ibn al-Murābiṭ.

In Córdoba he learned from ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Sirāj, Muḥammad ibn Faraj al-Ṭallāʿī, and Abū ʿAlī al-Ghassānī.

Endowed with keen intelligence and graceful bearing, he was dignified and decorous. The people of his city studied jurisprudence with him, and he was known as “the intelligent jurist.” Among those who trained under him were Abū Muḥammad ibn Shabūna, Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ, and Abū Bakr ibn Ṣalāḥ.

Students journeyed to him from many regions; his reputation travelled far, and a number of leading scholars graduated under his guidance. He was devout, quick to tears, and generous toward seekers of knowledge. He built Ceuta’s congregational mosque, later resigned from the judiciary, but was then asked to accept the judgeship of Fez. As exile did not please him, he returned to his homeland.

He died in Jumādā al-Ākhira, 505 AH. This date was reported by his disciple, the jurist Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ḥamāda, who praised him extravagantly, saying:

“He was the Imām of the Maghrib in his time, and since Yaḥyā ibn Yaḥyā al-Andalusī no one, anywhere, has had more students than he, nor have any pupils shown greater promise than his.”

I (the author) say: He lived seventy-seven years. Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ recorded that he was born in 428 AH, and he transmits from him in al-Shifāʾ.