Sahnun ibn Sa'id al-Tanukhi

A jurist who contributed greatly to the formation of the Maliki school and its spread in North Africa; author of al-Mudawwana. His full name is Abu Sa'id Sahnun 'Abd al-Salam b. Sa'id b. Habib al-Tanukhi.

He was born in 160 (777; according to another report 161/778), probably in the village of Manzil al-Siqlab, about 100 km. from Kairouan. He came from an Arab family of Syrian (Homs) origin. He became famous by the nickname “Sahnun” (the less favoured reading is Suhnun), the name of a sharp-sighted bird, on account of his intelligence and strong understanding.

He studied with Kairouan scholars such as al-Buhlul b. Rashid, 'Abd Allah b. Ghanim and Abu Zayd al-Ru'ayni. Since the fiqh of Iraq and of Abu Hanifa prevailed in Kairouan, and Sahnun wanted to learn Malik's views as thoroughly as possible but had no opportunity to travel to Medina and study with Imam Malik himself, he joined, on al-Buhlul's advice, the circle of Ibn Ziyad al-'Absi in Tunis — the first to transmit the Muwatta' in Ifriqiya — heard the Muwatta' from him and received his licence (ijaza). The teachers who influenced him most were al-Buhlul, Ibn Ziyad and Ibn al-Qasim.

He then set out on a journey east in search of knowledge. In Cairo he studied with Imam Malik's students Ibn al-Qasim, Ibn Wahb, Ashhab and 'Abd Allah b. 'Abd al-Hakam; in Medina with Malik's other students; in Mecca with Sufyan b. 'Uyayna; and in Damascus with al-Walid b. Muslim. Perhaps the chief reason for his going to Egypt was to present to Ibn al-Qasim, for correction, al-Asadiyya, which his fellow townsman Asad b. al-Furat had prepared with Ibn al-Qasim — in the copy Sahnun had assembled through others, having been unable to obtain it from Asad. Probably in 188 (804) he went with his teachers to the Hijaz, stayed more than two years in Mecca and Medina, and returned to Kairouan in 191 (807) with a strong body of learning. The most important source he brought back was the draft of the compilation later to be called al-Mudawwana. His student Ibn Waddah says that he taught his students twenty-nine sama' records and that he had never met anyone with such a rich store of learning.

On his return he probably settled in the village of Manzil al-Siqlab and formed his teaching circle; many students from outside Kairouan, especially from al-Andalus, attended his lessons. He took no fee for his teaching and earned his living by farming, probably from a large olive grove inherited from his father.

His relations with the Aghlabid emirs were limited and tense: he avoided meeting them unless obliged, refused their gifts and aid, and left their requests for fatwas unanswered. He explained this stance by a scholar's religious responsibility and his wish to preserve his scholarly independence; yet his opposition stayed within the bounds of classical Sunni opposition, which does not include rebellion against rulers. When Abu Ja'far Ahmad b. al-Aghlab launched the mihna over the createdness of the Qur'an (231/846), he was kept under house arrest for a year for declaring that the Qur'an is uncreated; he was released when Emir Muhammad I regained power and ended the mihna.

When he was offered the judgeship of Kairouan he at first refused; after a year of intense pressure he accepted on condition that he pursue the corruption of the Aghlabid house and officials and take no salary. He took office on 3 Ramadan 234 (31 March 849); for the first time in Ifriqiya he established an independent hisba organisation attached to the judgeship of Kairouan, and using his mazalim authority he supervised the rulers' unlawful practices. He was the first to ban the disputation sessions in the Great Mosque of Kairouan, open to members of all schools and sects, and he ended the Mu'tazilis' and Kharijites' posts as teachers, imams and muezzins. His judgeship lasted six years, until his death.

He died in Kairouan in Rajab of the year 240 (December 854). The Aghlabid Emir Muhammad I led his funeral prayer at the Bab Nafi' prayer ground, and he was buried at the same place.

His Circle of Influence — It may be said that the foundations of the Maliki school in Ifriqiya, in the sense of a school attributed to a person, were laid by Sahnun; over more than forty years of teaching he built a Maliki teaching tradition based on this heritage. The greatest share in the formation of his fame and authority within the school belongs to his students, who numbered 700; he is regarded as the Maliki imam who trained the most students after Malik, and is counted first of the four imams who kept the school alive. His three most famous students were his son Muhammad (Ibn Sahnun), Ibn 'Abdus and Yahya b. 'Umar al-Kinani; among his Andalusian students were Muhammad b. Ahmad al-'Utbi, Baqi b. Makhlad and Ibn Waddah. Abu al-Hasan al-Qabisi (d. 403/1012) ranked him above Ibn al-Qasim and regarded him, like Malik, as an undisputed authority.

His Poetry and Sufi Line — His understanding of fiqh largely reflects Malik's; its most distinctive feature is extreme caution in giving fatwas: he avoided ruling on questions where he had not reached certainty, often made the questioner wait several days, and said that in this he was following the tradition of the scholars of the Salaf. In matters of creed he adopted the creed of the Salaf and opposed interpretation (ta'wil) and debate on such subjects as God's attributes. He saw fiqh as a mindset and way of life, was scrupulous in avoiding the forbidden, and was usually in debt because he gave so much in charity. He attached importance to standing guard in the ribats of the Sahel, spending especially the months of Ramadan there; the Qasr Ziyad ribat, built at his encouragement, became famous as “the house of Malik”.

His Works — ① al-Mudawwana al-kubra: he produced it by working at length in Kairouan on the notes of the correction he had made in Egypt. He arranged al-Asadiyya, which had no particular order, by the chapters of fiqh; separated the views Ibn al-Qasim attributed to Malik by transmission and by derivation (takhrij); added Malik's views not found in al-Asadiyya, the views of his other students, and hadith and athar, and at times included his own views. From the III (IX) century onward the work became the basic source of the Malikis of North Africa and al-Andalus in particular; when its most famous abridgement, al-Baradhi'i's al-Tahdhib, came to be called al-Mudawwana, his work was named al-Mudawwana al-kubra. ② Nawazil Sahnun: not a work composed by Sahnun but a fatwa collection in which al-'Utbi gathered his answers to his students' questions. The sources also attribute to him two works, Kitab al-Zuhd and Manasik al-hajj; the latter is probably an abridgement of his teacher Ashhab's Kitab al-Hajj.

His Tomb and Complex — His grave, today near the city of Kairouan in Tunisia and covered by a small tomb, is one of the famous places of visitation.