Jamal al-Din al-Fakihi
- Died
- 972 AH
- Born in
- Mecca
Jamal al-Din al-Fakihi (899–972 AH / 1493–1565 CE) was a Meccan Shafi'i jurist and grammarian, known for his grammatical works such as Mujib al-Nida ila Sharh Qatr al-Nada ("The Answerer of the Call: Commentary on the Droplets of Dew") .
Life and Education
He was Jamal al-Din—also recorded as Afif al-Din—Abu Muhammad Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Ali al-Fakihi al-Makki al-Shafi'i . He was born in Mecca in 899 AH (1493/1494 CE), and his mother was an Ethiopian umm walad . He was raised in Mecca, where he pursued Islamic scholarship under the instruction of his father and other local scholars, eventually teaching and benefiting many students .
Al-Fakihi displayed early scholarly proficiency; he composed his celebrated commentary on Ibn Hisham's Qatr al-Nada, titled Mujib al-Nida, at the age of eighteen in 916 AH, though another copy records its completion in Rajab 924 AH . He later traveled to Egypt and resided there for a period . During a gathering at the al-Azhar Mosque, he encountered scholars struggling to interpret an obscure passage in Mujib al-Nida; when he resolved the difficulty and revealed that he was the author, the assembly initially doubted him until fellow Meccans present affirmed his identity .
Among his other notable contributions, he formulated a concise set of grammatical definitions in a small booklet and then elucidated them in an auto-commentary entitled Sharh al-Hudud al-Nahwiyya ("Commentary on Grammatical Definitions") . He also authored al-Fawakih al-Janiyyah ("The Ripe Fruits"), a commentary on al-Hattab's grammatical supplement .
Scholarly Standing
Biographers regarded al-Fakihi as one of the prominent scholars of his era who maintained broad mastery across multiple Islamic sciences . He was particularly celebrated for his unparalleled expertise in Arabic grammar, leading contemporaries to refer to him as the Sibawayh of his age . His writings were commended for reflecting extensive erudition and precision of understanding .
Death
Al-Fakihi died in Mecca in 972 AH (1564/1565 CE) .
Answer updated
List of Works
Sharh Kitab al-Hudud fi al-Nahw (The Commentary on the Book of Grammatical Definitions) is an Arabic grammatical work. It is an auto-commentary explaining a concise base treatise on fundamental grammatical terms and definitions, unpacking its phrasing and clarifying technical concepts across Arabic syntax and morphology.