Mawardi, Abu Al-Hasan Ali Ibn Muhammad Al-

Born 974, in Basra; died May 27, 1058, in Baghdad, in present-day Iraq. Arab Muslim jurist.

Al-Mawardi spent the greater part of his life in Baghdad, where he was chief magistrate. His works on Koranic interpretation, state law, and the art of government are well known. His most significant work is the treatise The Ordinances of Government (Al-Ahkam al-sultaniya) in which al-Mawardi expounded his conception of the ideal Muslim state.