Abu Mu?ammad ?Ali ibn A?mad ibn Sa?id ibn ?azm (Arabic: ??? ???? ??? ?? ???? ?? ???? ?? ????; also sometimes known as al-Andalusi a?-?ahiri; 7 November 994 – 15 August 1064 (456 AH) was an Andalusian poet, polymath, historian, jurist, philosopher, and theologian, born in Córdoba, present-day Spain.
He was a leading proponent and codifier of the Zahiri school of Islamic thought and produced a reported 400 works, of which only 40 still survive.
In all, his written works amounted to some 80 000 pages.
The Encyclopaedia of Islam refers to him as having been one of the leading thinkers of the Muslim world, and he is widely acknowledged as the father of comparative religious studies.