Imam Ibn al-Jawzi

Imam Ibn al-Jawzi: what to know before opening his books

• Full name: Abu al-Faraj Jamal al-Din Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Qurashi al-Taymi al-Bakri, known as Ibn al-Jawzi (ابن الجوزي). His lineage is said to go back to Muhammad, son of Abu Bakr.
• Birth: around 510 AH, corresponding to 1116, in Baghdad. Some sources give 508. According to the biographers, his name comes either from a walnut tree planted in the family home or from a quarter of the city.
• Childhood: his father died when he was three. Raised by his aunt in a family of copper merchants, he was directed towards study and placed in the circle of the hafiz Ibn Nasir.
• School: Hanbali. A jurist, hadith scholar, historian and exegete, but first of all a preacher, the activity that made him famous.
• Ordeal: towards the end of his life he was imprisoned and exiled to Wasit for five years, following political intrigues, before being freed and brought back to Baghdad.
• Output: several hundred titles according to the bibliographers, in almost every discipline.
• Most read work: صيد الخاطر, his reflections noted down day by day, and the first classical book many readers finish in Arabic.
• Death: on 12 Ramadan 597, corresponding to June 1201, in Baghdad. His funeral drew a crowd the chroniclers describe as immense.

The preacher of Baghdad

Before he was an author, Ibn al-Jawzi was a voice. His preaching assemblies, held in Baghdad for decades, drew crowds whose numbers, as reported by the chroniclers and to be taken with the usual caution, ran to tens of thousands. The caliph attended. People of every condition pressed in. There was weeping, public repentance, and people came from afar.

This oral biography explains the nature of his books. Ibn al-Jawzi writes as he speaks: in images, in direct address to the reader, in short sentences that strike and then move on. Where a jurist builds, he calls out. Where a hadith scholar lines up chains, he tells a story. That is what keeps his texts alive eight centuries later, and it is also what makes them accessible to a reader whose mother tongue is not Arabic.

The end of his life was hard. At close to eighty, caught up in rivalries beyond his control, he was imprisoned, then exiled to Wasit, where he remained five years. He returned, found Baghdad again, preached once more, and died in Ramadan 597.

A notebook more than a book

Here is why Sayd al-Khatir is the title to start with, and why it resembles no other.

The title means the hunting of thoughts. The author explains it himself: ideas came to him, true and fleeting, and he took to writing them down at once so as not to lose them. The book is the product of that habit. It has no plan. Its chapters are a page long, sometimes three lines. It speaks of passing time, of the death of loved ones, of ambition, of reading, of the ageing body, of money, of sincerity, in no order, as in a diary.

For a reader, that changes everything. You open Sayd al-Khatir anywhere. You read a chapter in two minutes. You close it, you pick it up again the next day. No classical work lets itself be approached that way. And since the language is that of the sermon, direct and vivid, the vocabulary is often clear from context. It is, without exaggeration, the Arabic book one most readily recommends to someone who has never yet finished one.

His works

صيد الخاطر

His reflections noted down day by day, in short chapters and in no order. The most widely distributed work of his entire output, and the best entry point into classical reading in Arabic.

تلبيس إبليس

An inventory of the illusions by which, according to the author, each category of people lets itself be deceived: scholars, devotees, rulers, merchants. Lively tone, at times polemical, arranged by chapter.

صفة الصفوة

His abridgement of Abu Nu'aym's Hilyat al-Awliya: portraits of the pious, from the first generations to his own time, stripped of the chains of transmission. Narrative reading, much appreciated.

زاد المسير في علم التفسير

His commentary on the Quran, in several volumes. Concise for a classical tafsir, with the merit of presenting for each verse the different readings and interpretations transmitted.

الموضوعات

His collection of fabricated hadiths, in several volumes. The first major systematic work on the subject, and the distant ancestor of the modern grading collections, such as those of Sheikh Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani. A specialist's work.

ذم الهوى

A treatise on passion and its ravages, blending narratives, poetry and exhortation.

المنتظم في تاريخ الملوك والأمم

His great universal chronicle, in many volumes, year by year. A historian's work, and a major source on Baghdad and the Abbasid period.

التبصرة

A collection of sermons arranged according to the religious calendar and the themes of exhortation.

To these should be added biographies, including that of Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz, works on the Quranic sciences, treatises of Hanbali fiqh, collections of anecdotes about the witty and the simple-minded, and dozens of other titles.

The abridgement of an abridgement: a confusion worth knowing

One title circulates everywhere under his name and is not quite his. It is worth understanding why.

Ibn al-Jawzi had composed منهاج القاصدين, an abridgement of al-Ghazali's famous Ihya, in which he sought to keep the substance while setting aside what he judged weak. Half a century later, Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi, another great Hanbali, abridged in turn Ibn al-Jawzi's abridgement. This second text, مختصر منهاج القاصدين, is the one everyone reads, prints and sells today. Ibn al-Jawzi's original is far less widely distributed.

The consequence: many covers and catalogues attribute the Mukhtasar to Ibn al-Jawzi, or mention both names without saying who wrote what. If you buy the Mukhtasar, you are buying a book by Ibn Qudama, built on a book by Ibn al-Jawzi, built on a book by al-Ghazali. That is not a flaw, it is a lineage, and it explains the quality of the text. But it is worth knowing. On our listings, the actual author appears first, and the lineage is stated.

Buy Imam Ibn al-Jawzi's books in Arabic

Every book sold by My Maktaba is in Arabic, in its original edition, and every one is new. For each title, the listing states the publisher, year, number of volumes, format, type of binding and whether the text is vocalised.

A word on the editions of Sayd al-Khatir, since that is where you will begin. There are dozens, from the unvocalised pocket format to the annotated large-format edition. For a learning reader, look for a vocalised edition with an airy layout: since the chapters are short, a dense page loses the advantage of the format. Editions with verification of the hadiths cited also have their value, the author having drawn widely on sources of unequal worth. This information appears on every listing.

After Sayd al-Khatir, take صفة الصفوة for continuous reading, or تلبيس إبليس if you prefer a text with an argument. The tafsir and the historical works will come much later.