al-Fayyumi
- Died
- 770 AH
- Born in
- Fayyum
Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Fayyumi (d. c. 770 AH / 1368 CE) was an Egyptian-born Shafi'i jurist and lexicographer based in Hama, best known for compiling the legal-linguistic dictionary al-Misbah al-Munir.
Life and career
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Ali al-Fayyumi al-Hamawi was born and raised in Fayyum, Egypt. He studied Arabic grammar and philology under Abu Hayyan al-Andalusi, under whom he developed his expertise in the language. Al-Fayyumi subsequently traveled to Syria and took up permanent residence in Hama. When the local ruler al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad Isma'il erected the al-Dahshah Mosque in Hama, he appointed al-Fayyumi as its regular preacher (khatib).
Standing
Biographers describe al-Fayyumi as an accomplished scholar with deep mastery in both lexicography and Shafi'i jurisprudence. In al-Durar al-kamina, he is commended as a virtuous scholar knowledgeable in language and fiqh. He completed his principal lexicon, al-Misbah al-munir fi gharib al-Sharh al-kabir, in Sha'ban 734 AH, ordering its entries alphabetically by root to explain the rare and technical legal vocabulary in Abu al-Qasim al-Rafi'i's commentary on Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's al-Wajiz while adding supplementary terms from other sources. He also authored a biographical work titled Nathr al-juman fi tarajim al-a'yan, which covers prominent figures down to the year 745 AH.
Death
Accounts differ regarding the date of al-Fayyumi's death. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani noted that he appeared to have lived past 770 AH (1368 CE), a death year also recorded by Katib Celebi in Kashf al-zunun. Conversely, a marginal annotation by Muhammad ibn al-Sabiq al-Hamawi on a manuscript of al-Durar al-kamina states that he died around 760 AH (1359 CE).
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Misbah al-Munir fi Gharib al-Sharh al-Kabir is an Arabic lexicon compiled to explicate the rare and difficult terminology found in Abu al-Qasim al-Rafi'i's al-Sharh al-Kabir (also known as Fath al-Aziz), an extensive commentary on Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's legal manual al-Wajiz. Arranged alphabetically by Arabic root letters, it functions as a comprehensive reference for both legal terminology and classical Arabic vocabulary.