Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi
- Died
- 984 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Badr al-Din al-Ghazzi (904–984 AH / 1499–1576 CE) was a Syrian Shafi'i jurist, legal theorist, Quranic exegete, and author based in Damascus .
Lineage and Early Life
He was Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Mufarrij ibn Badr al-Din ibn Uthman ibn Jabir al-Ghazzi al-Amiri al-Qurashi . His lineage traced back to the Qurayshite clan of Amir ibn Lu'ayy, and he carried the kunyas Abu al-Barakat, Abu al-Fadl, and Abu al-Jud, with Badr al-Din as his lakab . He was born in Damascus on Monday night during the time of the night prayer on 14 Dhu al-Qi'da 904 AH .
His early education was closely supervised by his father, Radi al-Din al-Ghazzi . He studied the Quran according to the ten recitations under al-Badr al-Sanhuri and read Shafi'i jurisprudence, Arabic grammar, and logic under his father . He continued his studies in Damascus under Taqi al-Din Ibn Qadi Ajlun and al-Badr Ibn al-Shuwaykh al-Maqdisi . He then traveled with his father to Cairo, where he studied under senior scholars including Zakariyya al-Ansari, Burhan al-Din Ibn Abi Sharif, Burhan al-Din al-Qalqashandi, and al-Qastallani .
Career and Later Life
Al-Ghazzi advanced rapidly in his scholarly career, assuming positions of teaching and issuing legal opinions (ifta') in 921 AH at the age of seventeen while his teachers were still alive, and he later held judicial office . In Damascus, he was appointed head of the Quran reciters (mashyakhat al-qurra') at the Umayyad Mosque and served as the imam of its Maqsura . He also taught at several Damascus institutions, including the Adiliyya, Farisiyya, Shamiyya al-Barraniyya, Muqaddamiyya, and Taqwiyya colleges . Students traveled to study under him, among them his sons Najm al-Din al-Ghazzi and Shihab al-Din Ahmad al-Ghazzi .
He journeyed to Constantinople and presented an extensive versified exegesis of the Quran to the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent . The work was examined by Ottoman scholars, who verified its correctness, after which the Sultan honored him with a substantial reward . He composed al-Matali al-Badriyya fi al-Manazil al-Rumiyya to document his travels to Ottoman lands . Among his other prominent works are al-Marah fi al-Mizah, an ethical study on the legal limits of joking, and al-Durr al-Nadid fi Adab al-Mufid wal-Mustafid, on pedagogical etiquette . In the middle of his life, he chose to withdraw from public affairs into seclusion .
Death
Al-Ghazzi died in Damascus on 16 Shawwal 984 AH, though another report records his death on 26 Shawwal, and a variant places it in 985 AH . He was buried in the cemetery of Shaykh Arslan .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Marah fi al-Mizah (Cheerfulness in Jesting) is a treatise examining the legal status, ethical boundaries, and traditions of joking and humor in Islam.
Adab al-Ashra wa Dhikr al-Suhba wal-Ukhuwa (The Etiquette of Social Intercourse and the Mention of Companionship and Brotherhood) is a treatise on Islamic social conduct, fraternity, and companionship.
al-Bahja al-Wafiya bi-Hujjat al-Khulasa al-Alfiya is an extensive versified commentary on Ibn Malik's grammatical poem al-Alfiya, composed in the rajaz meter.
al-Matali al-Badriyya fi al-Manazil al-Rumiyya (The Full Moon Rises on the Anatolian Stations) is a 10th-century AH travelogue documenting a journey from Damascus to the Ottoman capital Constantinople in 936 AH (1530 CE).
Adab al-Muakala (Adab al-Muwakalah, "The Etiquette of Dining Together") is a treatise dedicated to table manners and dining conduct.