Ala al-Din al-Haskafi
- Died
- 1088 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Ala al-Din al-Haskafi (1025–1088 AH / 1616–1677 CE) was a Syrian Hanafi jurist, legal theorist, and mufti of Damascus, widely recognized for his authoritative legal manual al-Durr al-Mukhtar.
Lineage and Early Life
He was Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Jamal al-Din ibn Hasan ibn Zayn al-Abidin, titled Ala al-Din. His family origin traced back to Hisn Kayfa in Diyar Bakr, from which he took the compound nisba al-Haskafi (or al-Hisni). He was born in Damascus in 1025 AH (1616 CE) and raised in a learned household; his father, Ali ibn Muhammad, served as an imam at the Umayyad Mosque.
Education and Career
Al-Haskafi began his studies in Damascus under his father and the scholar Muhammad al-Mahasini. He traveled to Ramla to study substantive jurisprudence under Khayr al-Din al-Ramli, who granted him an authorization (ijaza), and entered Jerusalem, where he took knowledge from Fakhr al-Din ibn Zakariyya al-Maqdisi. He also journeyed for the pilgrimage and studied hadith and transmission in Medina under Ahmad al-Qashshashi (al-Safi al-Qashshashi). Among his other prominent teachers were Ahmad al-Maqqari and Umar al-Qari.
Upon establishing himself as a foremost jurist in Damascus, al-Haskafi was appointed as the Hanafi mufti of the city. He engaged extensively in teaching and issuing legal rulings, training numerous students who transmitted from him, including Abd al-Rahman al-Mujallad, Izz al-Din al-Himsi, and the biographer Muhammad Amin al-Muhibbi. His scholarly output centered on clarifying and codifying Hanafi law, most notably through his legal commentary al-Durr al-Mukhtar (The Chosen Pearls) on Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Tumurtashi's Tanwir al-Absar, his commentary on legal methodology titled Ifadat al-Anwar, and al-Durr al-Muntaqa.
Standing and Assessment
Al-Haskafi was praised by his contemporaries and teachers for his exceptional memory, eloquence, and mastery of legal reasoning. In his ijaza, Khayr al-Din al-Ramli lauded his profound comprehension, broad scope of transmission, and skill in legal preference (tarjih). His student al-Muhibbi described him as an articulate scholar, hadith expert, and grammarian endowed with vast retention and precise exposition, while adding the qualification that his sheer knowledge surpassed his judgment.
Death
Al-Haskafi died in Damascus on 10 Shawwal 1088 AH (1677 CE) at the age of sixty-three. He was buried in the cemetery of Bab al-Saghir.
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Durr al-Mukhtar Sharh Tanwir al-Absar wa Jami al-Bihar is a seventeenth-century legal treatise in Hanafi jurisprudence. Composed as an abridged commentary on Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Tumurtashi's legal primer Tanwir al-Absar wa Jami al-Bihar, the work serves as a reference manual of substantive law (furu al-fiqh) in the late Hanafi school.