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Ubayd Allah al-Anbari

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Ubaydallāh ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Huṣayn al-ʿAnbarī (Arabic: عبيد الله بن الحسن بن الحصين العنبري), simply known as Ubaydallah al-Anbari (died 168 AH/784–5 AD) was an Arab jurist, poet, lexicographer, genealogist and a governor under the Abbasid Caliphate. He was highly distinguished for coining the popular saying: "kullu mujtahid musib",[1] roughly translated as "every earnest exercise of interpretation results in an acceptable conclusion".[2]

Life

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Ubayd Allah was born in Basra between 718/9 and 724/5 AD. He stemmed from a notable Basran family of jurists, belonging to the Arab tribe of Tamim.[3] He was appointed in 773 AD as qadi and governor of Basra by the Abbasid caliph al-Mansur (r. 754–775) succeeding the qadi Sewar ibn Abdallah al-Anbari. As governor he tried to keep his office independent, but he was restricted from pursuing his own policies and was only dependent on Baghdad. Al-Anbari regarded himself as the advocate of the people; while judging a case involving the caliph, he reportedly remained in his seat when the caliph entered the court.[4] In the year 783 AD, under the succeeding caliph al-Mahdi (r. 775–785), al-Anbari was removed from his office as a governor of Basra by the order of the caliph.[3] According to Tarikh Baghdad by al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, al-Anbari was dismissed because he refused an order from the caliph al-Mahdi to find in favor for a military leader against a merchant in a case.[4]

References

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  1. ^ Cook, M.; Haider, N.; Rabb, I.; Sayeed, A. (2013-01-06). Law and Tradition in Classical Islamic Thought: Studies in Honor of Professor Hossein Modarressi. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-07895-7.
  2. ^ Jackson, Sherman A. (1996-01-01). Islamic Law and the State: The Constitutional Jurisprudence of Shihāb Al-Dīn Al-Qarāfī. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-10458-7.
  3. ^ a b Tillier, Mathieu (2015-07-01). "al-ʿAnbarī, ʿUbaydallāh b. al-Ḥasan". In Fleet, Kate; Krämer, Gudrun; Matringe, Denis; Nawas, John; Rowson, Everett (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam (3rd ed.). Brill Online. ISSN 1873-9830.
  4. ^ a b Ess, Josef van (2017-09-15). Theology and Society in the Second and Third Centuries of the Hijra. Volume 2: A History of Religious Thought in Early Islam. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-34402-0.

See also

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