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The relationship between the jurist and the sultan has always been a dialectical relationship rooted in history. The former fulfills the principles of religion, and argues to ensure their survival, spread, and reliance on them as an indispensable reference. He wants it in the form of fatwas, opinions and religious stances that convince the masses, and make them accept the actions of the sultans for granted.
A phenomenon that, through its multiple manifestations and historical paths, has yielded what can be called “the sultan’s jurist,” the jurist who has always made the sultan’s orders like divine law, and they cannot be modified, evaluated, or confronted with arguments, which made a large number of jurists objecting to this vision and rejecting this defamation of Sharia. And tampering with it, so their jurisprudence and their positions of jurisprudence yielded fruit. It can be called “the jurist in the face of power.”
The son of the accurate Eid from birth to brilliance
Taqi al-Din Ibn Daqiq al-Eid, one of the prominent jurists and modernists in the seventh century AH / thirteenth century AD. The group of senior scholars who faced the Ayyubid authority in moments of its brutality and oppression in Damascus, and then in Cairo also when he resorted to it, and his asylum and the generosity of the sultans and Mamluk princes towards him did not prevent him from directing the arrows of criticism to them when the need arises, based on the scientific and moral responsibility that he was fully aware of. perception.
Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Wahb al-Qushayri al-Manfaluti al-Sa’idi, known as Ibn Daqiq al-Eid, was born on the 25th of Sha’ban 625 AH / July 1228 AD in a sailing ship that was passing the waters of the Red Sea close to the mouth of Yanbu. He rejoices over this boy, and he has circumambulated him around the honorable Kaaba, praying to God to make his boy one of the great scholars of the nation.
The son of Eid flour, whose grandfather was called by this name because he came out one day while he was pure white, so people called him “Eid flour”, he grew up in a family of senior and honored families in the city of Qus in Upper Egypt, which qualified him to enter the path of science and its acquisition, so he memorized The Noble Qur’an, then he studied Maliki jurisprudence under his father, then Shafi’i jurisprudence and Arabic sciences until he rose to the position of Maliki judges in Upper Egypt.
When Sheikh Ibn Daqeeq al-Eid completed his course in Islamic sciences, he sat as usual for his peers to teach and give fatwas
However, he decided in the end to head towards Cairo, which was the center of scientific and cultural radiation at the end of the Ayyubid era and the beginning of the Mamluk state. The late ones who agreed to ally themselves with the Crusaders against the other branch of their Ayyubid cousins in Egypt, so Sheikh Al-Izz bin Abd Al-Salam had a moral influence on his student Ibn Daqiq Al-Eid that far exceeded the scientific influence, and the Sheikh became an example that followed the student throughout his life. Whoever called Al-Izz the “Sultan of the Scholars”[2], a title that is still frequent on the tongues to this day.
Taqi al-Din Ibn Daqeeq al-Eid’s scientific paths varied, and because of his love and unbridled desire to seek science, he was not satisfied with the residence in Cairo only. He reached the scientific foundation, in which Imam Al-Shawkani says:
He surpassed the peers, and the elders of time were subject to him, his fame flew, his mention became famous, and he took students from him, and he classified the superior classifications, among which is “Al-Imam fi Ahadith al-Ahkam” and he proceeded to explain it in two volumes, in which he came as Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani said: With the wonders indicative of the vastness of his circle. in the sciences, especially in deduction” [3].
When Sheikh Ibn Daqeeq al-Eid completed his degree in forensic sciences, he sat, as was the custom of his peers, to teach and give fatwas, and he assumed judicial positions in the Bahri Mamluk state, and his knowledge became famous in the horizons, until he met with the great scholars of his time who knew him his destiny, knowledge and status, such as Ibn Taymiyyah and others, and even his fame became evident on the day If he was a student, so that his sheikhs surpassed the Maliki and Shafi’i scholars in his time, the historian Al-Salah Al-Safadi, who is close to him in his era, says:
"He was a well-versed imam, a well-versed scholar, a jurist, scrutiny, fundamentalist, literary, poetic, grammatical, intelligent, delving into meanings, diligent, abundant in mind, calm, stingy in speech, utterly pious, extremely religious, constantly staying up late for reading and gathering. ].
Rather, the historian al-Safadi considered that the most knowledgeable of the people of his time were three; Among them is al-Taqqi ibn Daqiq al-Eid, he says: “There was no one in time like them, or even before them a hundred years ago, and they are Sheikh Taqi al-Din bin Taymiyyah, Sheikh Taqi al-Din bin Daqiq al-Eid, and our sheikh, the scholar Taqi al-Din al-Subki” [5]. Moreover, al-Safadi, a contemporary of these figures, made the scholar Ibn Taqi al-Eid one of the renewers of Islam in his time, a status that is given only to the most prominent and well-established scholars who have a strong and noticeable influence in their societies, with the acquisition of the faculty of ijtihad. He says:
“And how could that not be, when God sent him at the head of a hundred to renew the nation’s religion and define for it what the rules of its law were suspected when clarified?”[6] He has prestige among creation, and between princes and politicians power, and his motive for this was his fear of God, and his constant monitoring, as he was quoted as saying: “I did not speak a word, nor did I actually do anything except that I prepared an answer for him in the hands of God Almighty” [7].
Judiciary and power struggle
Ibn Daqeeq al-Eid was elevated to the position of Shafi’i judge in Egypt on Jumada al-Awwal 18 695 AH / March 1296 AD in the state of Sultan al-Mansur Husam al-Din Lajeen (695-697 AH / 1296-1298 AD), and he was at the end of his life seven years before his death, and was considered the position of a judge The Shafi’i judges are the most important and highest position among all the judges. The holder of this position in the Mamluk era was authorized to take over the supervision and management of many endowments, schools and khanaqs that were established for the Sufis. With this supervision, he adds to the position of the judiciary a very great religious and social sway and power that made the Shafi’i judge the biggest head in The religious issue at that time.
From here, the period of his rule over her palace was one of the most dangerous and most important years of his life, as he became in close contact with the Sultan and senior statesmen, and for the solidity of his knowledge, and his severity in the truth despite his calmness and serenity that he was known for, he rejected the testimony of the Deputy Sultan Prince Seif al-Din Menkutumor because he He considered it an unfair and insufficient testimony in the eyes of Sharia, despite the flattery of the elders and many scholars for this prince. Sultan Lajeen did not reply to his deputy, Menkotamr, this is any order or request, and the representative of Menkotamr was considered the Sultan on the truth at some times at the time.
The Sultan's deputy sent to Ibn Daqiq al-Eid some of his kings and then his senior princes, asking him to pass him in the prosecution house
Menkotmer had sent to the judge of the judges, Taqi al-Din bin Daqiq al-Eid, informing him, claiming that a merchant died and left a brother without an heir but him, and he wanted him to prove the brother's entitlement to all the inheritance based on this news, but the Sheikh refused to sign the case in favor of the merchant based on the testimony of Menkotmer alone. The messages were repeated between them, but the judge refused each time, and insisted on his position, undaunted by the deputy of the Mamluk Sultanate, as it was proven to him that the evidence was not sufficient, and the last time one of the senior princes in the state sent him to reconsider the matter, and the historian Al-Maqrizi transmits the text The dialogue in which the bravery of the jurist and judge is evident in facing the pressures of the authority, he says: “He (the emir) said to him: O my master, what is (i.e., what is justice) you have? Ibn Daqiq al-Eid said: Glory be to God, then he chanted:
They say this to us is not permissible *** and who are you so that you have it!
He repeated that three times, then said: By God, when I do not have legal evidence that is proven to me, otherwise I will not rule anything for him in the name of God, so the emir stood up and said: By God, this is Islam.
He returned to Minkotamr and apologized to him that this matter requires you to meet with the judge if he comes to the House of Justice.”
When Ibn Daqiq al-Eid ascended to the House of Justice in the Citadel of the Mountain in Cairo on the day allotted to him, the deputy of the Sultan sent to him some of his kings and then his senior emirs, asking him to pass him in the prosecution house, “He did not turn to any of them, and when they insisted on him, he said to them: Say: He turned to the judges with him and said to them: I testify to you that I have isolated myself in the name of God, and say to him, “He can take care of someone else.”
Al-Faqih returned to his home, and sent his captains to his deputies in the judiciary throughout the Egyptian country to prevent them from ruling and contracting marriages. He had to do it and his recklessness, then he sent to the judge some senior jurists and princes to take him to the castle, and indeed the judge ascended after insistence, and here we leave Al-Maqrizi to tell us this rare scene in the history of the relationship between the authority and the judiciary in our Islamic history, he says:
So they took him to the castle, so the sultan got up to him and met him and determined for him to sit in his rank (the Sultanate’s chair), so he (the judge) spread his handkerchief, and it was a fine linen rag above the silk of the chair before he sat down; And the Sultan continued to be so kind to him until he accepted the mandate (and the return to the judiciary), then the Sultan said to him: Sir, this is your son. Something comes from him, and he repeated it three times and got up” [8].
The deputy of the Sultanate, Seif Al-Din Mankumar, kept looking for opportunities, and was eager to swipe the nose of this jurist who insulted and degraded him, and he is the owner of the supreme sword in the vast Mamluk empire, and who restored the dignity of scholars and judges before the men of power and authority again, so he sent to the judge Ibn Daqiq al-Eid accusing him of being He illegally seized money from the resources of one of the schools that he was supervising and managing. Ibn Daqiq al-Eid sent him a letter stating these accusations, and even made it a letter of blasphemy and curse on the unjust on both sides, and only a few days passed without Sultan Lajeen killed, and imprisoned. His deputy, Menkotmer, was then released from prison and killed, as Ibn al-Wardi recounts in his history [9]!
When Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad bin Qalawun ascended to the throne of the state, and the Levant in his era entered a dangerous turning point with the attack of the Tatars from Iraq, which they had occupied and eliminated the Abbasid Caliphate in it, the Mamluk armies were in dire need of funds to spend on the war effort, and here the Sultan ordered to collect money From the parish voluntarily or forcibly through taxes to confront this calamity, relying on an old fatwa of Sheikh al-Islam Izz al-Din bin Abd al-Salam at the time of Sultan Saif al-Din Qutuz, but the judge of the judges Ibn Daqiq al-Eid stood before this matter, which he considered daring to give fatwas, and to take its context, defiantly saying to the Sultan:
Ibn Abd al-Salam did not stop at this until after all the princes brought all their money, and collected what the princes had of jewels and precious stones with which they adorned their women and their concubines, then he said to him: How is it permissible to take something from the money of the subjects, no, by God? It is not permissible for anyone to deduct a dirham from one of the children of the people except in a legitimate manner.”[10]
The Sultan obeyed the order of Sheikh Ibn Daqiq al-Eid, and did not impose taxes on people despite the urgent need to prepare armies.
The attempts of senior men of authority did not stop at pressuring Judge Ibn Daqiq al-Eid to submit to their demands, which were dominated by personal benefit over public interest, and misuse of power. Ibn al-Salous, the minister Ibn al-Salous had a turbulent relationship with the former judge, Taj al-Din ibn al-Azz. That some of his writings and speeches indicate his disbelief and his departure from the religion, and for this purpose he wrote a report in which some jurists were forced to sign it with approval and the validity of its content, and only the signature of the scholar Ibn Daqiq al-Eid, who is the judge of judges, was left to carry out the death sentence against the Sheikh!
The minister actually sent these fabricated minutes and their legal and legal rationale to Judge Ibn Daqiq al-Eid in Cairo and then made him hurry to sign, as he was told: O Lord, judge, the hour is to put your handwriting (your signature) on these minutes, so he took them, and began to contemplate them one by one, and the captains from the castle are urging And the request and the inconvenience, and they want him to sign for the execution of the plot, and they say to him: “The minister and the sultan are in a request for that, and he does not get upset, and whenever he finishes a report he pushes it to the other, and he says: I don’t write anything about it.” Sheikh Fath al-Din (one of the jurists present) said: “Oh! My lord the judge for the sake of the sultan and the minister. Ibn Daqiq al-Eid said: I do not enter into the shedding of the blood of a Muslim. He said: So I said: How do you write your handwriting with that, and with what will be concluded in it, and you say: You do not dissolve his blood? He said: O jurist, what is your mind? To the Sultan and say: So-and-so has written, and they do not tell him the truth that I wrote in a way that goes against the lines of the rest. Rather, they say:He wrote the group, and this is the handwriting of Ibn Daqiq al-Eid, so I will be the strongest reason for killing him. This nullified their deed, averted their cunning, calmed their surah, and extinguished the flames of their fire.”[11]
Ibn Daqiq al-Eid understood the ploys of the men of power well, from the sultan up to the senior princes and the vizier, as well as from those without them, as many of the Mamluk princes wanted to hide in the shadow of the fatwas that were prepared at the request of "bad jurists" in the words of the scholar Al-Subki, Ibn Daqiq Al-Eid realized Eid flour is this equation, and even the nature of the bureaucratic system in the mountain castle, and how the decisions were “cooked” to present them to the Sultan without his knowledge and his standing on the most dangerous thing in it, and the previous example is the best evidence of this, which made the son of Eid flour refuse to sign an invalid report prepared in advance. for personal revenge.
According to historian Ibrahim Tarkhan, the phenomenon of refraining from issuing a fatwa or signing it in that era, as Ibn Daqiq al-Eid did, was “a kind of peaceful and bold revolution, and it shows the extent to which the sultans realized the importance of the jurists in winning public opinion”[12].
The influence of the jurists in that era rested on their strength, which they derived from their scientific and moral value, and the respect and support of the general public, and since the Turkish Mamluks were strangers coming to power without a popular support to support them, they gave enough space for jurists and scholars to be the middle class between the authority and the people, and thus The jurists gained the most prominent space, and entered into the administration of the state in various forms, primarily religious and administrative, and obtained many material and moral gains alike.
From this aspect, senior judges, who were known for their clean hands and the firmness of knowledge, such as Al-Ezz bin Abd al-Salam, al-Taki Ibn Daqiq al-Eid, Ibn Sayyid al-Nas, Badr al-Din Ibn Jama`ah, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and others, realized that facing the delinquency of power in moments of indiscretion is irreversible, to preserve On the moral and legal reference on which the Mamluk state relied, as well as maintaining social peace, and the sultans feared what they feared most about those who assert the truth, stigmatizing the masses against the tyranny of power. When Ibn Battuta visited Egypt at that time he heard that Sultan Al-Nasir Muhammad Ibn Qalawun was afraid of one of the great scholars whose name was Shams al-Din al-Hariri.
However, this did not last all the time. On the other hand, some influential men of power found their goal in jurists who were satisfied to be a ride to detail the fatwas that achieve the personal goals of the sultans, but we calculated in the biography of the scholar Taqi al-Din bin Daqiq al-Eid what gives an important feature about the nature of the relationship between the sultan and the jurist in the medieval Islamic era; As the jurist stood with his full strength and confidence in himself and in the task of the judiciary, which was headed by a firm stance in the face of repeated attempts by the men of authority to infringe on rights and freedoms, and for this he was able to block the doors of crimes because of telling the truth, and steadfastness on the principles on which these scholars were brought up.