Qadi Abu Bakr ibn al-Arabi

The judge Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Arabi al-Ma'afiri, one of the scholars of al-Andalus. He was born on the night of Thursday, eight nights before the end of Sha'ban 468 AH, and died in 543 AH and was buried in Fez. ²

He travelled to the East with his father at the beginning of Rabi al-Awwal 485 AH. He heard hadith in al-Andalus, Bejaia, Mahdiyya, Alexandria, Egypt, Damascus, Mecca and Baghdad. In Baghdad he met Abu Bakr al-Shashi and Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, and he read literature with al-Tabrizi. ²

Al-Maqqari quotes him saying that everyone who travelled did not bring back as much knowledge as he brought, except al-Baji. ²

He returned to al-Andalus in 493 AH and was appointed judge of Seville. Al-Maqqari says that he held the judgeship with strictness in the truth, and it is related that he ordered the cheeks of a flute-player pierced. Then he was removed from the judgeship and devoted himself to spreading knowledge. He died at Mughayla, a village of Fez. ²

The data attributes to him Ahkam al-Qur'an, on the authority of "Kashf al-Zunun". The rest of his books are not mentioned here, and need an additional source.