The Grand Critic of Ibn Khaldūn

It is interesting to note that whilst premodern Islamic(ate) thought is finally gaining more attention and study by Western Orientalists, even the extant material that is currently available, known and analysed by scholars, reflects only a small portion of a vast literary heritage that largely remains trapped in manuscript forms scattered across the world . In this tight monograph spanning over one hundred and fifty pages, Elena Şahin, an independent scholar of Islamic political thought, explores the political output of the Arab Andalusian Mālikī faqīh and qāḍī Ibn Al-Azraq (d . 896/1491) by analysing his most prominent scholarly production, Badāʾiʿ al-Silk fī Ṭabāʾiʿ al-Mulk (Unprecedented Lines about the Nature of Political Rule) . Al-Azraq lived in the late Nasrid Granada era, marred by violent dynastic family feuds foreshadowing the eventual end of Muslim rule in Spain, serving as a judge and diplomat in public life . His intellectual productions reflected not only his socio-political historical epoch but also his engagements with prominent Muslim scholarship in the shared Andalusian/Maghribī space, including that of Ibn Khaldūn (d.808/1406).