MUḤAMMAD B. YŪSUF al-SANŪSĪ

for the Encyclopedia of Islam
Second Edition

MUḤAMMAD B. YŪSUF al-SANŪSĪ, most famous for his popular `aḳā'id, died 18 Djum. II 895/ 10 May 1490 at the age of 63 (or 57?). As a religious leader in Tilimsān, he kept aloof from the ruling Banū-Zayyān warlords, administering to a clientele of Ṣūfīs and scholars, but did give advice when asked, as when he supported al-Maghīlī's attack on the Jews of Tuwāt. His theology is typical of aging Ash`arite Kalām: no originality, but summaries for the masses and commentaries to explain the summaries. Yet vast numbers of manuscripts in North and West Africa attest to their popularity, where they remain standard works.

His biographer, al-Mallalī, lists 46 works, of which Brockelmann omits 12; a few others bring the number to 52. Theology: the `aḳīdas: al-Kubrā, al-Wusṭā, al-Ṣughrā, Ṣighrat al-Ṣighra, with al-Muḳaddima, each with a Sharḥ (2-11), the commentary on the poem of al-Djazā'irī (16=B.IV & XVI), and on the Murshida of Ibn-Tūmart (42, found in Tunis). Lost are another `aḳīda (12), a commentary on the `aḳīda of al-Ḥawḍī (15), and on the Djawāhir al-`ulūm of `Ar. al-Shīrāzī (44). Legal: Sharḥ fī farā'iḍ al-Ḥawfī (1, B. V & XXIX), the fatwā on al-Maghīlī (52, in AB & IM). Lost are a commentary on the Mudawwana (33), on the Muḳaddima of al-Waghlīsī (34), and Naẓm fī l-farā'iḍ (35). Qur'ān: six lost works (21, 30, 31, 32, 45, 46). Ḥadīth: three extant works (17=B.XX; 18=B.XXX; 19 Sharḥ li-mushkilāt waḳa`at fī ākhir al-Bukhārī, in al-Mallālī), a lost Mukhtaṣar al-Zarkashī (20) and life of Muḥammad (37). Ṣūfic: Sharḥ asmā' Allāh al-ḥusnā (13=B.XXVIII), Sharḥ al-tasbīḥ (14, in al-Mallālī), a commentary on verses of al-Albīrī (39=B.XXIII?, in al-Mallālī), two wirds (49=B.XVI?, in al-Mallālī), Nuṣrat ahl al-dīn (50=B.IX-X), and Manāḳib al-arba`a al-muta'khkhirīn (51, edited by Ibn-Sa`d?, in IM and al-Mallālī). Other: lost works on algebra (22), logic (23, 25, 26, 27), the astrolabe (28), medicine (29, 47), grammar (43, 48), and an extant work on logic (24=B.XXXI).

Bibliography: B. = Brockelmann, II, 250-2, S II, 352-6. AB = Amad Bābā, Nayl al-ibtihādj bi-taṭrīz ad-Dībādj, Cairo, 1932. IM = Ibn-Maryam, al-Bustān fī dhikr al-awliyā' wa-l-`ulamā' bi-Tilimsān, Algiers, 1908. M. al-Mallālī, al-Mawāhib al-ḳuddūsiyya fī l-manāḳib al-sanūsiyya, Bibliothèque Nationale, n. 6897. J. Kenny, Muslim theology as presented by M. b. Yūsuf as-Sanūsī, especially in his al-`aqīda al-wusṭā (Ph.D. thesis, U. of Edinburgh, 1970); "The small catechism, (Umm al-barāhīn or al-`Aqīda aṣ-Ṣughrā) of Muḥammad ibn-Yūsuf as-Sanūsī," Hamdard Islamicus 13:4 (1990), 49-64.

(J. Kenny)