The identity of «the Muftī of Oran», Abū l-‘Abbās Aḥmad b. Abī Jum‘ah al-Maghrāwī al-Wahrānī (d. 917/1511)

Abstract

This study attempts to identify the “muftī of Oran”, outlining his life and career through an analysis of the available data in North African sources. I suggest that already in the biographical sources of sixteenth century, the biographies of two scholars were conflated, that of the muft himself, Abū l-‘Abbās Aḥmad b. Abī Ŷum‘a (m. 917/1511), and that of his son, Abū ‘Abd Allāh Muḥammad Šaqrūn (d. 929/1523-24). This study endeavors to resolve this conflation. Originally from Oran, Aḥmad studied in Tlemcen and eventually settled in Fez, where he obtained a position as professor of Islamic law. It is likely that he issued his famous fatwā of 910/1504 to the Moriscos there, as one of the prominent jurists of the city, intending to oppose the opinion of his contemporary Aḥmad b. Yaḥyà al- Wanšarīsī (d. 914/1508).