al-Qadi 'Iyad

'Iyad ibn Musa al-Yahsubi al-Sabti (476-544 AH / 1083-1149 CE) was a jurist and traditionist of the Maliki school, the legal madhhab (school of Islamic law) named after Malik ibn Anas that dominated the Muslim West. He was born in Ceuta, on the Moroccan coast, into a family said to descend from Arabs who had settled in al-Andalus and then the Maghreb. Around the age of thirty (507-508/1113-1114) he travelled through al-Andalus to study, visiting Cordoba, Almeria, Murcia and Granada, and received an ijaza (a teaching licence certifying transmission) from the leading hadith scholar of the age, Abu 'Ali al-Sadafi, in Murcia.

'Iyad was appointed chief judge (qadi) of his native Ceuta in 515/1121, then briefly judge of Granada (c. 531-532/1136-1138) before returning to Ceuta. He is best known as an author: al-Shifa' bi-Ta'rif Huquq al-Mustafa, a much-loved work on the qualities of the Prophet Muhammad, and Tartib al-Madarik, a biographical history of Maliki scholars, alongside a commentary on the hadith collection of Muslim.

When the Almohad movement of Ibn Tumart overran the region, 'Iyad — who reportedly did not accept Ibn Tumart's claim to be the awaited Mahdi — led Ceuta in resistance, then submitted, and was exiled toward Marrakesh. He died in 544/1149; the manner is disputed by the sources (see below).