al-Akhdari

Abu Zaid Abdurrahman ibn Muhammad al-Akhdari (918-983 AH / 1512-1575 CE) was an Algerian Maliki scholar from the oasis town of Biskra in eastern Algeria. Despite his relatively short life, he produced works that became central to religious education across the Maghreb and persist in traditional curricula to this day.

Al-Akhdari is best known for two works. The first is al-Jawhar al-Maknun fi as-Salasah al-Funun (The Concealed Gem in the Three Arts), a didactic poem on rhetoric (balaghah) covering the three disciplines of al-bayan (clarity), al-ma'ani (meanings), and al-badi' (embellishment). This poem became the standard introductory text on Arabic rhetoric in the Maghrebi educational tradition, with numerous commentaries written on it.

His second celebrated work is as-Sullam al-Murawnaq fi Ilm al-Mantiq (The Adorned Ladder in the Science of Logic), a concise didactic poem on Aristotelian logic as adapted in the Islamic scholarly tradition. This poem became the standard introductory logic text across the Maghreb and many other parts of the Muslim world, and commentaries on it continue to be written and taught today.

Al-Akhdari also wrote on Maliki jurisprudence and other Islamic sciences. His works demonstrate mastery of both the Islamic sciences and the rational disciplines (mantiq and balaghah). He passed away in Biskra in approximately 983 AH. The enduring use of his two didactic poems in traditional Islamic educational institutions across North Africa and beyond is his lasting legacy.