Shams al-Dīn ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī al-Mardāwī

Shams al-Dīn Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī ibn Badrān ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Maqdisī al-Mardāwī aṣ-Ṣāliḥī ad-Dimashqī, commonly known as Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī or simply al-Nāẓim (“the Versifier”).

He hailed from the extended family of the Banū Qudāmah, a lineage that produced some of the most influential figures in the Hanbali school.

Birth and Early Life

He was born in the village of Marda, one of the villages near Nablus in Palestine, in 630 AH (1233 CE). His early years unfolded against a backdrop of political unrest but also intellectual vitality across the Levant (Bilād al-Shām).

Historical and Cultural Setting

1. Political Landscape

When Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī was born, the Muslim world—especially the Levant and Palestine—was in a state of flux. Though Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī had retaken Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 583H (1187CE), foreign strongholds still dotted the coastal plains. The Ayyūbid dynasty governed Egypt, Syria, and parts of the Ḥijāz, but internal rivalries among Ayyūbid princes weakened political cohesion.

Shortly after his birth, instability worsened with Crusader raids, dynastic struggles, and the looming Mongol threatfrom the east. These pressures culminated in the Mongol sack of Baghdad (656H)—a wound upon the heart of the Muslim world. Yet only two years later, in 658H (1260CE), the Muslim armies of Egypt and Syria achieved a decisive victory at ʿAyn Jālūt, halting Mongol expansion into Palestine and Syria.

Thus, Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī came of age amid turmoil, but also within a society that, even in hardship, nurtured deep reverence for knowledge and faith.

2. Religious and Scholarly Environment

Despite political turbulence, the Levant remained a beacon of learning.

Jerusalem (al-Quds) continued to thrive as a center of ḥadīth transmission, fiqh, and Qurʾānic studies. Damascus rivaled Baghdad and Cairo as a global seat of learning.

The Ḥanbali school, reinvigorated by the legacy of Ibn Qudāmah and his family, flourished under a new generation of jurists.

Among the towering scholars of this era were Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ, al-Nawawī, and Ibn Mālik, whose teachings in Damascus defined an age of intellectual and spiritual renaissance. The city’s academic life was a blend of traditionalist creed (Atharī), legal precision, and linguistic mastery—a milieu that would profoundly shape Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī’s own character and contributions.

3. Social Conditions

Village life in Marda was simple and agrarian, yet closely linked to the scholarly cities through pilgrimage, trade, and the movement of students and teachers. Families devoted to scholarship, such as Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī’s, often hosted traveling ʿulamāʾ and transmitted both religious and linguistic knowledge orally.

Scholars served as spiritual and communal anchors, guiding people through times of upheaval. Respect for the ʿulamāʾ was deep and sincere; they were seen not merely as jurists, but as the moral compass of their communities.

4. Cultural Values

The society that nurtured Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī prized memorization, eloquence, and mastery of Arabic as hallmarks of both faith and intellect. Poetry remained a respected vehicle for moral and legal instruction. In such an environment, Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī’s later genius for versification—expressed through monumental didactic poems—reflected not only individual brilliance but also the cultural spirit of his age.

Teachers and Education

Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī began his studies in his hometown, where he memorized the Qurʾān and heard ḥadīth from prominent scholars, including:

• The Khaṭīb of Marda, Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl al-Maqdisī al-Nābulusī al-Ḥanbalī,

• ʿUthmān ibn Khaṭīb al-Qarāfah,

• Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī,

• Ibrāhīm ibn Khalīl,

• Muẓaffar ibn al-Shīrjī,

• Tāj al-Dīn ibn ʿAsākir of Jerusalem.

He demonstrated a remarkable independent drive (himmah) in seeking knowledge, reading extensively on his own in addition to attending formal lessons.

He studied fiqh under Shams al-Dīn Ibn Abī ʿUmar al-Maqdisī (d. 682H)—a jurist of great renown and the first Hanbali judge of Damascus, who served twelve years without pay. Ibn Abī ʿUmar was also a nephew of Ibn Qudāmah and one of the teachers of Imām al-Nawawī.

In Arabic grammar, Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī studied under Jamāl al-Dīn Ibn Mālik al-Ṭāʾī al-Jayyānī (d. 672H), the celebrated grammarian and author of al-Alfiyyah and al-Kāfiyah al-Shāfiyah. Under him, Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī mastered not only grammar and rhetoric but also the art of composing in verse—a skill that became the signature of his legacy.

Academic Excellence and Service

Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī distinguished himself in Arabic (al-ʿArabiyyah), jurisprudence (fiqh), and ḥadīth. He combined the legal acumen of a jurist with the eloquence of a poet and the precision of a grammarian.

He served as a teacher at the Ṣāḥibiyyah School (al-Madrasah al-Ṣāḥibiyyah) in Damascus—an institution founded by Rabīʿah Khātūn al-Ṣāḥibah, sister of Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Ayyūbī. Located on the eastern slope of Mount Qāsiyūn, opposite the Hanbali Mosque (Jāmiʿ al-Ḥanābilah) in the Ṣāliḥiyyah district, it became a center of Hanbali learning.

Centuries later, Ibn Badrān would praise the school in Munādamat al-Aṭlāl (p. 237):

“It is among the monuments that testify to the advancement of architectural art in that era.”

Even in later times, the school’s original nameplate was restored by the master calligrapher Mamdūḥ al-Sharīf, a testament to its lasting legacy in Damascus’s scholarly memory.

Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī also participated in teaching and scholarly gatherings at Dār al-Ḥadīth and on Mount Qāsiyūn, joining the intellectual assemblies that defined the city’s religious life.

Character and Praise by Scholars

His peers and students remembered him not only for his intellect but for his noble character, humility, and cheerful temperament.

Al-Ḥāfiẓ ʿIlm al-Dīn al-Barzalī wrote:

“He was a virtuous shaykh, well-versed in fiqh, grammar, and language, possessing vast memorization. He issued fatāwā, taught at the Ṣāḥibiyyah School, and composed much poetry.”

Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Dhahabī said:

“He was righteous in religion, pleasant in character, abundant in benefit, and free from affectation. I sat with him, listened to him, and received an ijāzah from him.”

And al-Saffārīnī described him in rapturous terms:

“The peerless Imām, the unique exemplar, the Sībawayh of his era—rather, the Qus ibn Sāʿidah of his age, and the Sahbān of his time—who put pearls of speech to shame with his poetry and outshone the brilliance of dawn with his eloquence. He was an ocean of knowledge and a rain cloud of generosity.”

Students

Among his distinguished students were:

• Al-Qāḍī Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn Muslim al-Ṣāliḥī (d. 726H), a jurist and grammarian of Damascus, known for his integrity and asceticism.

• Taqī al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Taymiyyah (d. 728H), who studied Arabic grammar under him and later became one of Islam’s foremost scholars in theology, fiqh, and ḥadīth. The linguistic precision and rhetorical clarity for which Ibn Taymiyyah became known owed much to this early tutelage under Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī.

Authorship and Works

• ʿIqd al-Farāʾid wa Kanz al-Fawāʾid - His monumental didactic poem—one of the largest poetic compositions in the entire Islamic legal canon. Written in the dālīyah rhyme (ending in “dāl”), it spans between 5,000 and 15,000 lines. In this magnum opus, Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī versified: al-Muqniʿ by Ibn Qudāmah, incorporated material from al-Sharḥ al-Kabīr of his teacher Ibn Abī ʿUmar, drew from al-Kāfī and al-Muḥarrar, and included his own poetic treatise on inheritance law, Rawḍat al-Rāʾiḍ fī ʿIlm al-Farāʾiḍ. He called it ʿIqd al-Farāʾid wa Kanz al-Fawāʾid (“The Necklace of Jewels and the Treasure of Benefits”), and it came to be known simply as “al-Manẓūmah”. For this achievement, he earned the title al-Nāẓim, “The Versifier.” Ibn Badrān notes in al-Madkhal that the poem “reaches approximately five thousand lines,” though others estimate far more. Through this work, he distilled the entire Hanbali legal tradition into poetic form, always striving to present the strongest positions (al-qawl al-rājiḥ).

• Manẓūmat al-Ādāb (al-Ādāb al-Ṣughrā) - His second most famous work, a 947-line poem on Islamic conduct and ethics, often referred to as al-Ādāb al-Sharʿiyyahor al-Ādāb al-Ṣughrā. This poem became a foundational text in Hanbali moral education, prompting numerous commentaries, including: Fatḥ al-Wahhāb Sharḥ al-Ādāb by Mūsā al-Ḥajjāwī and Ghidhāʾ al-Albāb fī Sharḥ Manẓūmat al-Ādāb by al-Saffārīnī.

• Majmaʿ al-Baḥrayn - An unfinished commentary on al-Muqniʿ by Ibn Qudāmah, intended to unite the depths of legal reasoning with clarity of expression.

• Naẓm al-Furūq - A poetic versification of al-Furūq by Ibn Sunaynah al-Sāmirī, highlighting subtle distinctions between seemingly similar legal rulings—an art that required both mastery of fiqh and linguistic nuance.

• Ṭabaqāt al-Aṣḥāb - A biographical compilation on the ranks and contributions of Hanbali jurists and transmitters.

• Kitāb al-Niʿmah - A two-volume work, now largely unstudied but referenced in later bibliographies.

• Al-Muntaqā fī Sharḥ al-ʿUmda - A commentary on ʿUmdat Ibn Mālik, showcasing his deep command of Arabic syntax and morphology.

Passing

Imām Ibn ʿAbd al-Qāwī passed away on the 12th of Rabīʿ al-Awwal, 699H (7 December 1299 CE) and was buried at the foothills of Mount Qāsiyūn in Damascus, where generations of scholars have rested.

May Allah have mercy upon him, reward him for his immense service to the religion, and join him with the righteous and the learned in the highest ranks of Paradise.