IBN AL-'ASSĀL. - An Arab jurist who lived in thirteenth-century Egypt. He was responsible for a compilation of canon and civil law, of the type known as nomocanons. The collection in question may be dated to around 1240; its original title is al-Maḡmū' aṣ-ṣafawī (meaning “The collection of aṣ-Ṣafī”).
The material used for this compilation was partly authentic and partly adulterated. The civil-law portion of the collection was derived chiefly from two compilations of Byzantine Roman law: the Prochiron (v.) and the so-called Syro-Roman Book (v.). The canon-law portion, on the other hand, also consists of texts of Byzantine origin, namely the alleged decrees of the Fathers of Nicaea and precepts of the Old Testament treated in a Christian manner. To this body of sources were added rules of Muslim law according to the Mālikite rite.
Perhaps better known than the original text is the poor Ethiopic version of the work, which appeared in the seventeenth century under the title Fetha Nagast (“The legislation of the kings”) and which is still held in very high esteem in Abyssinia today, despite the limited practical applicability of the rules and precepts it contains.
Antonio Rota
IBN BĀḠAH : V. AVENIPACE.