ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN SARAḴSĪ

 

ʿABD-AL-RAḤMĀN B. MOḤAMMAD AL-SARAḴSĪ, ABŪ BAKR, a Hanafite jurist (d. 439/1047). Though originally from Saraḵs, he grew up in Baghdad, where his shaikh was the well-known Hanafite scholar Qodūrī (428/1037). He left Baghdad for Ḵūzestān, where Ebn al-Moštarī (436/1044), judge under the Buyid sultan Abū Kālīǰār, appointed him as the judge of Baṣra. A lean and not an outspoken person, Saraḵsī did not impress the Buyid vizier, Ḏu’l-saʿādāt b. Fesānǰes; the latter wrote to Ebn al-Moštarī, blaming him for his bad choice. Before Ebn al-Moštarī had even tried to write anything in reply, the vizier sent him another letter apologizing for what he had said at first. It seems that the ascetic Saraḵsī was not particularly interested in keeping the post and left it and went to Rāmhormoz. In the field of learning he was much influenced by his teacher Qodūrī who wrote, among other things, two famous manuals: al-Moḵtaṣar and al-Tarǰīd. Although the former means “The Abridged,” Saraḵsī reduced it to a yet more abridged form (Moḵtaṣar al-moḵtaṣar). He wrote a supplement (takmela), a copy of which still exists (Vehbī, Istanbul, No. 442), to al-Tarǰīd.

Bibliography:

Ebn Abu’l-Wafā, al-Jawāher al-możīya, Hyderabad, 1332/1919, I, p. 307.

Ebn Qotlobḡa, Tāǰ al-tarāǰem, Baghdad, 1962, p. 33. Kašf al-ẓonūn (Istanbul), pp. 346, 471.

Baḡdādī, Hadīyat al-ʿārefīn, Istanbul, 1951, I, p. 516. Kaḥḥāla, V, p. 174. Sezgin, GAS I, p. 457.

(I. Abbas)

Originally Published: December 15, 1982

Last Updated: July 14, 2011

This article is available in print.
Vol. I, Fasc. 2, pp. 147-148

Cite this entry:

I. Abbas, “'Abd-Al-Rahman Saraksi,” Encyclopædia Iranica, I/2, pp. 147-148; an updated version is available online at http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/abd-al-rahman-saraksi (accessed on 16 January 2014).