EṢṬAḴRĪ, ABŪ SAʿĪD ḤASAN

 

EṢṬAḴRĪ, ABŪ SAʿĪD ḤASAN b. Aḥmad b. Yazīd, Shafiʿite jurisconsult and author (b. 244/858, d. in Baghdad, 328/939). He is usually described as the judge of Qom, but he also became the judge of Sejestān (some of his judicial decisions made there are known) at the invitation of the caliph al-Moqtader (295-320 /908-932). In addition, Eṣṭaḵrī held the important post of moḥtaseb, or supervisor of the market, in Baghdad, and although the chronology of his life is not reported in the sources, it would appear from the accounts of his exchanges of views with contemporaries in Baghdad that he spent much of his professional life in the capital. He was held in very high esteem by his colleagues and many of his decisions and controversies with other scholars on points of law have been preserved in Sobkī’s biography, which thus constitutes a useful source for the legal history of the period.

None of Eṣṭaḵrī’s works have come down to us, although the titles of some are known. These are: Ketāb al-farāʾeż al-kabīr, Ketāb al-šorūṭ wa’l-waṯāʾeq wa’l-maḥāżer wa’l-sejellāt, Adab al-qāżī, and Ketāb al-aqżīya. Since they are all handbooks for the judge’s practice, some may represent different titles of the same work.

 

Bibliography (for cited works not given in detail, see “Short References”):

Abū ʿĀṣem Moḥammad ʿAbbādī, Ketāb ṭabaqāt al-foqahāʾ al-šāfeʿīya, ed. G. Vitestam, Leiden, 1964, p. 66.

Ebn Ḵallekān, ed. ʿAbbās, II, pp. 74-75.

Ebn al-Jawzī, Montaẓam VI, p. 302.

Ebn al-Nadīm, ed. Tajaddod, p. 267.

Sobkī, Ṭabaqāt (Cairo1), II, pp. 193-205.

(Jeanette Wakin)

Originally Published: December 15, 1998

Last Updated: January 19, 2012

This article is available in print.
Vol. VIII, Fasc. 6, pp. 647-648