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Ishaq al-Ilthi

إسحاق العلثي

1237 CE · 634 AH

Baghdad

Ishaq al-Ilthi (d. 634) — the ascetic Hanbali of Ilth near Ukbara whom contemporaries called 'shaykh of Iraq' for his fearless command of right: he denounced caliph al-Nasir to his face and was jailed for denouncing wine more than anyone of his time 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
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.
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 al-Mahasin al-Shawwa · Abu Ali al-Shalubin

In space

Baghdad

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

Summary

Ishaq al-Ilthi the model ascetic, cousin of Talha ibn al-Muzaffar; Hanbali faqih enjoining the good and forbidding the wrong, fearing none and moved by no reproach in truth; he confronted the caliph al-Nasir and those below him, faced the caliph and split him open with the truth; al-Nasih ibn al-Hanbali said: he is today the shaykh of Iraq and the one standing in censure of the jurists, the fuqara' and others in what they took licence in; it is said none in his time denounced drunkenness more than he — for it he was jailed a while; he has many epistles of censure. 1

Connections

Explore the connections

Died in
Baghdad

People and things also explored

The Nizamiyya Madrasa of Baghdad· Bayt al-Hikma — the House of Wisdom· The 'Adudi Bimaristan· al-Bimaristan al-Muqtadiri· Bimaristan al-Sayyida· Dar al-'Ilm of Baghdad (Sabur's library)· The Jami' al-Qati'a of Baghdad· The mosque of Qati'at Umm Ja'far

Sources

  1. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 163
Cite this page

islam.museum contributors. “Ishaq al-Ilthi”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/ishaq-al-ilthi/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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Wing

People

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

The Nizamiyya Madrasa of Baghdad

The Nizamiyya of Baghdad, first and most famous of the madrasas founded by the vizier Nizam al-Mulk al-Tusi: building began in 457 and sisters rose at Nishapur, Isfahan, Herat, Basra, Mosul and Amid; the Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni then Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi taught in it, and it mothered the Sunni institutional model that the later madrasas of Baghdad followed — the caliphs prayed there and Nizam al-Mulk himself visited to inspect its library.