Abu Muhammad Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Hazm was born in Cordoba in 994 CE into a vizierial family, and spent his youth amid the civil strife that ended the Umayyad caliphate in al-Andalus, moving between imprisonment and exile before devoting himself entirely to scholarship.
Ibn Hazm adopted the Zahiri legal school, based on adhering to the literal wording of texts without analogical reasoning, authoring his legal compendium 'al-Muhalla', as well as 'al-Fasl fi al-Milal wa'l-Ahwa' wa'l-Nihal' comparing religions and sects, and his literary treatise on love and human nature, 'Tawq al-Hamama' ('The Ring of the Dove').
Legacy
Ibn Hazm died in 1064 CE after a life filled with disputes against rival jurists. His prolific writings on jurisprudence, logic, comparative religion, and literature remain among the most significant products of the medieval Andalusian intellect.
