Chapter Six.

A Commentary on Ibn Tumart's Views.

Factors in Ibn Tumart's Views: - 1 Some later Moroccan historians and writers have described the Mahdi as a "scholar-sultan," a description derived from the nature of the call he made, which was characterized by the intermingling of knowledge with politics. Social and political reform were founded on doctrinal and fundamental principles. This description, with its aforementioned background, is suitable as a framework for a comprehensive evaluative attempt of Ibn Tumart's views, which have been presented. It aims to clarify the characteristics of these views and to discern an aspect of their unity and coherence.

Ibn Tumart was a scholar, as his biographers unanimously agree, despite their differences, and as is evident in his writings and sermons. However, he was not a scholar who withdrew from people and life to engage with abstract concepts and ideas, and to produce works based on the analysis and generation of ideas from one another and their classification according to what abstract thought requires. Rather, he was a scholar whose soul was imbued with the reality of life in its political and social manifestations, and who was concerned with the disorder and deviation from the path of Sharia occurring in this life. Thus, he took upon himself the burden of reforming that disorder and correcting that deviation. This reformist concern for the deviated reality then became a fundamental axis for his knowledge, through which he achieved the goal of its formulation and construction. Therefore, Ibn Tumart's views cannot be understood and evaluated without considering this context.

(1) See: Al-Maqqari, Al-Bustan: 244/5, 553; Ibn Maryam, Al-Nail al-Ibtihaj: 246; Al-Timbukti, 120, 215.

(2) The origin of this description is what Abu al-Hasan al-Saghir said when Muhammad bin Ibrahim bin Ahmad al-Abdari asked him about the Mahdi, and he replied, "a scholar-sultan" (see Nafh al-Tib in the aforementioned location).