al-Jamal al-Zaylai
- Died
- 762 AH
- Born in
- -
al-Jamal al-Zayla'i (d. 762 AH / 1360 CE) was a Hanafi jurist and hadith specialist originating from Zeila who lived and died in Cairo, best known for his pioneering hadith extraction work Nasb al-Raya.
Origin and Lineage
His full name was Jamal al-Din Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Yusuf ibn Muhammad ibn Ayyub ibn Musa al-Hanafi al-Zayla'i. A variant recorded by Mahmud ibn Sulayman al-Kafawi names him Yusuf ibn Abd Allah. His nisba denotes origin from Zeila, a coastal port in the Horn of Africa on the Abyssinian littoral. He is distinct from his contemporary, the jurist Fakhr al-Din al-Zayla'i (d. 743 AH), author of Tabyin al-Haqa'iq.
Education and Scholarly Companionship
Al-Zayla'i applied himself to legal and hadith scholarship in Cairo and Alexandria. He studied jurisprudence under Fakhr al-Din al-Zayla'i, the Hanafi judge Ala' al-Din Ibn al-Turkmani, and Ibn Aqil. In hadith, he transmitted from students of al-Najib al-Harrani and other masters, including Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Futuh al-Tujibi, Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Qays al-Ansari, Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Uthman ibn Adlan, Jalal al-Din Ali ibn Abd al-Wahhab ibn al-Furat, Taqi al-Din al-Lakhmi, Taj al-Din Muhammad ibn Uthman al-Bilbaysi, and Jamal al-Din Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn al-Buri.
He shared a close research partnership with Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi. Al-Iraqi recounted that the two scholars studied hadith collections together to assist each other with their respective extraction projects: al-Iraqi focused on verifying traditions cited in Abu Hamid al-Ghazali's Ihya Ulum al-Din as well as the narrations cross-referenced by al-Tirmidhi, while al-Zayla'i focused on documenting the traditions in Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani's legal manual al-Hidaya and al-Zamakhshari's Quran commentary al-Kashshaf.
Scholarly Standing and Reception
Al-Zayla'i earned praise from later authorities for his exhaustive command of hadith paths, texts, and narrator evaluation (rijal). Scholars particularly noted his scholarly fairness and lack of factional bias; in tracing legal traditions, he cited and evaluated the textual proofs relied upon by all major schools of jurisprudence alongside those of the Hanafi tradition with rigorous neutrality.
His extraction work Nasb al-Raya became a primary authority for subsequent specialists in legal hadith extraction, including Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi, Ibn al-Mulaqqin, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. Ibn Hajar later prepared abridgments of both Nasb al-Raya (under the title al-Diraya) and al-Zayla'i's extraction of al-Kashshaf. Subsequent Hanafi jurists, such as Ibn al-Humam in his commentary Fath al-Qadir, drew nearly all of their hadith citations directly from al-Zayla'i's extractions.
Death
Al-Zayla'i died in Cairo on 11 Muharram 762 AH (November 1360 CE).
Answer updated
List of Works
Nasb al-Raya li-Ahadith al-Hidaya ("Erecting the Banner for the Traditions of al-Hidaya") is a specialized work of hadith extraction (takhrij). It is dedicated to referencing, tracing, and critically assessing the prophetic traditions and reports cited throughout the legal manual al-Hidaya by Burhan al-Din al-Marghinani.
Takhrij Ahadith al-Kashshaf (fully titled Takhrij al-Ahadith wa-al-Athar al-Waqi'ah fi Tafsir al-Kashshaf li-l-Zamakhshari, and also recorded as al-Is'af fi Takhrij al-Ahadith wa-al-Athar al-Waridah fi Tafsir al-Kashshaf) is a specialized work of hadith extraction (takhrij). It documents, verifies, and critically assesses the prophetic traditions and non-prophetic reports cited in al-Zamakhshari's Quran commentary, al-Kashshaf.