ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, a famous and influential family of historians, jurists (sing. faqīh), traditionists (sing. muḥaddith) and scholars during the 2nd and 3rd/8th and 9th centuries, who were the leaders of the Mālikīs in Egypt. Their forebear, Aʿyan b. al-Layth, migrated from Ḥaql, one of the small townships of Ayla (Eilat) on the Red Sea coast, and settled in Alexandria. There he had a son, Abū ʿUthmān ʿAbd al-Ḥakam, who subsequently amassed a large fortune and became …