Abu al-Walid al-Baji

Abu al-Walid al-Baji, full name Sulayman ibn Khalaf ibn Saʿd (or Saʿdun) ibn Ayyub al-Qadi Abu al-Walid al-Tujibi al-Andalusi al-Qurtubi (28 May 1013 – 21 December 1081), was a Sunni scholar from Beja in al-Andalus. He was an eminent Mālikī jurist (faqih), hadith master (muhaddith), theologian (mutakallim), poet and a man of letters. He was an accomplished debater, prolific writer in numerous scientific works and was a meticulous scholar whose high calibre of knowledge and religious merit are widely acknowledged. He and Ibn Ḥazm were "the two most important literary figures in eleventh-century al-Andalus".

Life Al-Baji was born in Beja on 28 May 1013 to a family from Badajoz. The family later relocated to Córdoba, where he received his primary education. At the age of 23, he went east to continue his studies. He remained there for thirteen years, three in Mecca studying under Abū Dharr al-Harawī. After a period in Baghdad under Abū l-Ṭayyib al-Ṭabarī and Abū Isḥāq al-Shīrāzī, he spent a year in Mosul under Abū Jaʿfar al Simnānī, possibly studying kalām. He may also have visited Aleppo, Damascus and Egypt.

Works Al-Tasdid ila Ma`rifa al-Tawhid Sunan al-Minhaj al-Minhāj fī tartīb al-ḥijāj, the earliest work produced in the west on "the science of disputation in the field of jurisprudence" Risāla fī al-ḥudūd Jawāb al-qāḍī Abū l-Walīd al-Bājī ilā risālat rāhib Faransā ilā al-Muslimīn