İbn Gâzî el-Miknâsî, full name Ebû Abdullah Muhammed b. Ahmed İbn Gâzî el-Osmânî el-Miknâsî (1437-1513) is a Moroccan Islamic jurist, recitation and hadith scholar, historian and mathematician. In addition to his studies on Maliki jurisprudence, he is known for his poetic work on arithmetic and his commentary on this work.
Vital
Ibn Ghazi was born in Meknes in 1437. He came from the Beni Osman dynasty of the Berber Kütame tribe; The name "Ibn Gâzî" is based on Gâzî, one of the great ancestors of the family. After receiving his primary education in Meknes, around 1454, when he was seventeen years old, he went to Fes and studied at the madrasas in Qarawiyyin and its surroundings for many years.
He received ijazah in a wide range of fields, especially recitation, Arabic language, tafsir, hadith, fiqh, sirah and mathematics.
After completing his education, he returned to Meknes and worked as a preacher and lecturer in the city's large mosque. However, after a disagreement with the Vattasi administration, he had to settle in Fez. He worked as imam-hatip and teacher at the Karaviyyin Mosque in Fez; He became one of the leading figures in the scientific community here until the end of his life.
He educated many students; Among them were his own sons. In 1491, he wrote an index in which he recorded his teachers and the licenses he received. He died in Fez in 1513.
works
Ibn Ghazi's works span different fields such as recitation, hadith, fiqh, language, history and mathematics. The main ones are:
- Münyetü'l-hüssâb: A work that puts the content of Telhîsu a'mâli'l-hisâb, the arithmetic book of the Maghribian mathematician İbnü'l-Bennâ, into verse with some appendices.
- Commentary on Bugyetü't-tullâb fî Münyeti'l-hüssâb: Approximately 300-page commentary that he wrote on his own poetry, explaining arithmetic and algebra methods; It was completed in 1490.
- al-Kulliyyât: A short work compiling legal issues and fatwas according to the Mālikī sect.
- Şifâü'l-galîl: Halîl b. Commentary written on Ishaq's Muhtasar on Maliki jurisprudence.
- er-Ravzü'l-hetûn fî ahbâri Miknâseti'z-zeytûn: A work describing the history of Meknes and the scholars who grew up in the city.
Bugyetü't-tullâb was published as a lithograph in Morocco at the end of the 19th century and annotations were written on it. This shows that the work was used in mathematics teaching in the Maghreb for a long time.
Ibn Gâzî is one of the late representatives of the tradition of scholars who continued religious sciences and mathematics education together in the Maghreb. Both his work on the history of Meknes and his arithmetic studies are among the important sources for understanding the scientific and cultural life of the region in the 15th century.
