Marʿī ibn Yūsuf al-Karmī al-Maqdisī

Shaykh Marʿī ibn Yūsuf al-Karmī al-Maqdisī (d. 1033 AH / 1624 CE)

Hanbalī jurist, traditionist, theologian, author, commentator, and one of the leading Hanbalī authorities of the Ottoman period

Shaykh Marʿī ibn Yūsuf ibn Abī Bakr ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī Bakr ibn Yūsuf ibn Aḥmad al-Karmī—later known as al-Maqdisī—was among the most eminent Hanbalī scholars of the 11th century AH. His nisba “al-Karmī” refers to Ṭurkaram, a village west of Nablus that later developed into today’s city of Ṭūlkarm in Palestine. Biographical evidence indicates that al-Karmī was born in Ṭūlkarm, from which he moved to Jerusalem, and subsequently to Cairo, where he lived out the remainder of his life. He died in 1033 AH and was buried in the well-known Maqbarat al-Mujāwirīn.

Education and Scholarly Formation

In his homeland, al-Karmī studied with leading Hanbalī jurists, most notably:

• Shaykh Muḥammad al-Mardāwī

• Qāḍī Yaḥyā ibn Mūsā al-Ḥajjāwī

Upon his arrival in Egypt, he studied under major scholars such as:

• Shaykh Muḥammad al-Ḥijājī al-Wāʿiẓ

• Shaykh Aḥmad al-Ghunaymī, the prominent Azharī faqīh

• And many other leading Egyptian shaykhs of the time

His Egyptian teachers authorized him to teach, and he soon became a central figure in Cairo’s scholarly circles.

Teaching and Professional Life

Al-Karmī began teaching and conducting scholarly recitation at al-Azhar Mosque, and later was appointed Shaykh of the Sultan Ḥasan Mosque, one of the most prestigious positions in Cairo. His tenure saw a well-known scholarly rivalry with the contemporary Egyptian Hanbalī scholar Ibrāhīm al-Maymūnī, with whom he exchanged treatises—an episode preserved in the biographical literature of the period.

Contemporaries describe him as living almost entirely for the service of knowledge. Al-Muḥibbī wrote:

“He was one of the most eminent Hanbalī scholars in Egypt—an imam, a muḥaddith, and a jurist, deeply knowledgeable of legal texts, the subtleties of hadith, and the sciences of his age. He was wholly absorbed in scholarship, dividing his time between fatwā, teaching, research, and writing. His works circulated widely and endured across generations. Despite the many adversaries he faced, no one could find fault in his writings or diminish their worth.”

His writings reveal not only mastery of jurisprudence and hadith but also engagement with tafsīr, adab, theology, Sufism, history, and devotional literature.

Major Contributions and Works

Al-Karmī authored more than seventy works, according to al-Muḥibbī and the author of Mukhtaṣar Ṭabaqāt al-Ḥanābilah, with lists preserved also in Hadiyyat al-ʿĀrifīn. His writings span:

• Hanbalī jurisprudence

• Hadith studies

• Theology and doctrinal creed

• Tafsīr

• Inheritance law

• Arabic grammar, rhetoric, and literature

• Asceticism

• Historical and political writings

• Polemic and refutation literature

1. Dalīl al-Ṭālib li-Nayl al-Maṭālib

Perhaps his most famous introductory legal text, Dalīl al-Ṭālib became one of the standard primers in later Hanbalī fiqh. It continues to be printed, taught, and commented upon throughout the Muslim world.

2. Ghayat al-Muntahā fī Jamʿ bayna al-Iqnāʿ wa-l-Muntahā

A monumental synthesis of the two major Hanbalī references:

• al-Iqnāʿ of al-Ḥajjāwī

• al-Muntahā of al-Futūḥī

The work spans nearly forty volumes in manuscript and occupies a central place in the later Hanbalī legal tradition. Shaykh ʿAbd al-Qādir al-Badrān praised the author’s methodological independence, noting that al-Karmī exercised a level of authentication, selection, and tarjīḥ closer to that of earlier mujtahids, even though he lived during a period of decline in the school’s scholarly production.

3. Maṭālib Ūlī al-Nuha fī Sharḥ Ghayat al-Muntahā

His extensive commentary on Ghayat al-Muntahā, printed in five large volumes, became one of the pillars of Ottoman-era Hanbalī fiqh.

Other Notable Works

Al-Karmī’s oeuvre includes works across numerous disciplines. Examples include:

• Grammar & Linguistics:

Irshād Ṭullāb al-Aʿrāb, al-Qawl al-Balīgh, Tuhfat al-Muḥibb fī al-Maqṣūr wa-l-Mamdūd

• Creed & Theology:

Aqwāl al-Thiqāt fī Tafsīr al-Asmāʾ wa-l-Ṣifāt,

Kashf al-Awhām ʿammā Qīla fī al-Makhlūq al-Malam,

al-Maṭālib al-ʿĀliyah fī Faḍāʾil Ibn Taymiyyah (unfinished)

• Tafsir and Qur’anic sciences:

Rawḍat al-Naẓẓār fī Āyāt al-Istidlāl,

Luʾluʾ al-Nukāt fī Āyāt al-Naskh wa-l-Mansūkh

(as well as several unfinished tafsir projects)

• Hadith Studies:

al-Fawāʾid al-Mawḍūʿah fī al-Aḥādīth al-Mawḍūʿah

• Adab, Letters, and Devotional Literature:

Ṭarāʾiq al-Insāʾ fī al-Rasāʾil wa-l-Kutub,

Taslīyat al-Mufāriq ʿan Aḥbābihi,

Ithārat al-Ashjān,

Ḍawʾ al-Siṛāj fī Faḍl al-Sulṭānah wa-l-Wizārah

• Many Legal Treatises and Fatwas:

Legacy and Influence

Shaykh Marʿī al-Karmī stands among the last major systematizers of the post-classical Hanbalī tradition, bridging the line of earlier jurists such as al-Ḥajjāwī and al-Mardāwī with the Ottoman-era commentators and later Najdī scholarship.

His works became standard references in legal circles from Egypt and Syria to Najd, Iraq, and beyond. Dalīl al-Ṭālib and Maṭālib Ūlī al-Nuha in particular exerted a lasting influence on the curriculum of Hanbalī fiqh.

Al-Karmī’s intellectual range—encompassing jurisprudence, hadith, tafsir, grammar, devotional writing, polemic, theology, and history—speaks to both the breadth of his learning and the vitality of Hanbalī scholarship in the Ottoman Arab provinces. His life exemplifies the scholar devoted entirely to service of knowledge: teaching, writing, correcting, and preserving the tradition.

May Allah have mercy on him and reward him for the benefit he left to the Ummah.