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al-Rafi'i al-Jili, qadi of Damascus

الرفيع الجيلي قاضي دمشق

c. 1244 CE · c. 642 AH

Damascus

The Shafi'i qadi al-qudat of Damascus (d. 642) — a capable jurist and mutakallim who commented Ibn Sina's Isharat, then turned Damascus's bench into a racket of forged deeds, false witnesses, bribes and devoured waqf property; arrested in Dhu al-Qa'da 641 and thrown off a Lebanese crag, cut to pieces before he reached the water 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Jurist · Scholar
Era
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Life in time

112511501175120012251250127513001325 c. c. c. c. c.
The Buyid, Fatimid and Seljuk Era · The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era Contemporaries: Abagha Khan · Abu al-Abbas al-Qurti · Abu al-Hajjaj al-Biyasi · Abu Ali al-Shalubin · Abu Bakr ibn Qawam al-Balisi

In space

Damascus

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Place in the story

    sunni-shafii (transmitted)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    Overview

    Al-Rafi'i al-Jili, chief qadi of Damascus; a brilliant jurist-debater versed in kalam, philosophy and the ancients' sciences — he commented Ibn Sina's Isharat well. 1

    His fall

    He held Baalbek's judgeship then was moved to Damascus's — where he pursued a corrupt course: false registers, baseless claims, standing false witnesses, devouring bribes, orphans' and endowments' wealth, intoxicants, attending Friday prayer drunk; his agents were seized and tortured — their chief Ibn al-Rawas died under punishment — and he was taken out to a cave on Mount Lebanon: it was said he was strangled, said he was thrown from a height. 1

    Connections

    Explore the connections

    Died in
    Damascus

    People and things also explored

    the Cave of Qasyun (Jibril's Cave)· Qasr Hiraql / Qasr Shams al-Muluk· The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus· The Fitna of the Hafiz Abd al-Ghani in Damascus in 595· al-Afdal besieges Damascus and turns back· al-Adil's seizure of Damascus· al-Ghazali's arrival in Damascus as an ascetic, in 488· al-Ashraf takes Damascus

    Sources

    1. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 222-223
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “al-Rafi'i al-Jili, qadi of Damascus”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/al-rafii-jili/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-21.

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    Wing

    People

    Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story.     Related

    the Cave of Qasyun (Jibril's Cave)

    The mosque raised inside the cave of Mount Qasyun by Abu al-Faraj Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn al-Mu'allim beginning in 370, after a dream in which Jibril bade him build a mosque where God's name would be remembered — he called it Jibril's Cave; a broad prayer-hall floored in white marble, its columns all marble, never empty of the pious at remembrance.