Jalal al-Din al-Dawani

Jalal al-Din al-Dawani (830–918 AH / 1427–1512 CE) was a Shafi'i jurist, theologian, and philosopher from Fars, known for his influential theological commentaries and philosophical treatises such as his commentary on Adud al-Din al-Iji's al-'Aqa'id al-'Adudiyya Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1.

Lineage and Early Life

His full name was Muhammad ibn As'ad ibn Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahim ibn 'Ali al-Siddiqi al-Dawani, with the honorific Jalal al-Din al-Jawahir al-Ghawali fi …+1. He traced his descent to the first caliph, Abu Bakr al-Siddiq, from which he derived the nisba al-Siddiqi Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…. He was born in 830 AH (1427 CE) in Dawan, a village in the district of Kazerun in Fars Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1. His father, Sa'd al-Din As'ad, held the office of judge in Dawan and served as a hadith scholar at the Murshidi Mosque in Kazerun Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1.

Education and Career

Al-Dawani received his early instruction in foundational, literary, rational, and religious sciences from his father Sullam al-Wusul ila Tabaq…. He also studied under teachers including al-Mahyawi (recorded in some sources as al-Mahbubi) and Hasan ibn al-Baqqal al-Badr al-Tali bi-Mahasi…+1.

He subsequently settled in Shiraz, where he taught at the Orphanage School (Madrasat al-Aytam) and was appointed chief judge (qadi) of Fars by the regional ruler Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1. Students traveled to his circles from Anatolia, Khurasan, and Transoxiana al-Badr al-Tali bi-Mahasi…+1. His students included Abu al-Fadl al-Khatib al-Kazaruni, Abu al-Fadl al-Astarabadi, and As'ad al-Haqq al-Nurbakhshi (known as Nasibi) Nuzhat al-Khawatir wa Bah…+1.

Scholarly Contributions and Reception

Al-Dawani gained prominence across the rational disciplines, particularly logic, speculative theology (kalam), and philosophy al-Badr al-Tali bi-Mahasi…+1. Contemporary and later biographical authorities described him as the leading authority in the rational sciences in Persian lands, noting both his eloquence and his humility al-Badr al-Tali bi-Mahasi…. In praise of his erudition, it was remarked that had the sciences vanished, he could have reconstituted them Sullam al-Wusul ila Tabaq….

He authored works in both Arabic and Persian, including Risalat al-Zawra', a philosophical treatise on metaphysics and mysticism completed in 870 AH (1465 CE) following a dream of Ali ibn Abi Talib Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…, and a commentary on Shihab al-Din al-Suhrawardi's Hayakil al-Nur al-Alam lil-Zirikli+1. His marginalia on theological and logical manuals sparked extensive debate; he engaged in a well-known sequence of dialectical refutations (tabaqat) with Sadr al-Din al-Dashtaki over the commentary on Nasir al-Din al-Tusi's Tajrid al-I'tiqad, which Dashtaki's son, Ghiyath al-Din Mansur, later continued against al-Dawani Kashf al-Zunun an Asami a….

Death

Al-Dawani died in 918 AH (1512 CE), having lived to around ninety years of age al-Alam lil-Zirikli+1. Other historical reports place his death in 907 AH, 908 AH, or 928 AH Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1. He died near Kazerun and was buried close to his native village of Dawan Mujaz Dairat al-Maarif al…+1.