Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi (Arabic: محمود شكري الآلوسي, born 12 May 1856 – 8 May 1924) was an Iraqi Muslim scholar and historian who lived in Baghdad.[1][2][3]
A grandson of Mahmud al-Alusi, he is known for being a religious reformer and one of the early advocates of the Salafi movement.[1][2]Muhammad Rashid Rida described him as “The supporter of the Sunnah, the suppressor of heresies, the sign of what has been transmitted and the discerner of those with reason, the living Islamic encyclopedia and the beacon of the Arabs.”[4]
Biography
Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi was born on the 12th of May in the year 1856 in the Rusafa area of Baghdad.[3] He was the son of Abdullah Bahauddin al-Alusi, who was in turn the son of Mahmud al-Alusi. Hence, Mahmud Shukri was the grandson of Mahmud al-Alusi.[2][5]
As an adult, Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi lived his life between teaching and writing, and he contributed to the creation and editing of the first newspaper in Baghdad, the Al-Zawra Newspaper. He also contributed to supplying articles and research for magazines such as the Al-Manar magazine.[2][4] His rational and almost extremist tendencies regarding Sufism and creed earned him the scorn of the Ash'ari scholar Abu al-Huda al-Sayyadi who refuted him and requested Ahmed Abdel Wahab Pasha to send him into exile from Baghdad.[3][2] In his exile, Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi was sent to Mosul, but the residents of Mosul, who felt sympathy for him, petitioned for him to be allowed to return to Baghdad. In Mosul, he studied under the scholar Ibrahim bin Mustafa al-Mawsili.[2][5]
When the British occupied Iraq in 1921, the British officials treated Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi nicely and invited him to be the main scholar giving out the fatwa (religious rulings and verdicts).[2][5] Mahmud Shukri declined this offer and chose to continue his work as a teacher and scholar.[2][5]
Mahmud al-Alusi died on the 18th of May in 1924 from a chronic disease. He was buried in the Sheikh Ma'ruf Cemetery of Baghdad.[2][5][4]
Views
Front page of Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi's Bulugh al-Arab, a treatise on pre-Islamic Arabians
Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi was an Athari in creed and a Hanafi in his jurisprudence, although he would sometimes identify with the Shafi'i school of thought.[2][5] He was tolerant of Sufism but he disliked those went extravagant in Sufism, such as Yusuf al-Nabhani.[6] Mahmud Shukri even wrote a refutation against Yusuf al-Nabhani, known as Ghayat al-Amani fi al-Radd 'ala al-Nabhani.[2][5][7]
Despite his Salafi-influenced beliefs, Mahmud Shukri al-Alusi opposed the Wahhabi movement.[1] However, he defended them on creedal matters, and he even denied the violence of the Wahhabis in Arabia.[1][8] He even called Muhammad ibn Abdul Wahhab the title Shaykh al-Islam.
