FROM MARW TO THE THUGHUR: IBN AL-MUBARAK AND THE SHAPING OF A BIOGRAPHICAL TRADITION

The article focuses on the figure of a renowned Sunni scholar, the muhaddith and mujahid Ibn al-Mubarak (d. 797), author of the Kitab al-Jihad, one of the first work on the issue. His biographical profile is analyzed examining the tendency of the later biographical sources to credit him as one of the founding fathers of Sunni identity and as a model of ethics and behaviour combining zuhd and jihad.