Jamil al-Shatti
- Died
- 1379 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Muhammad Jamil al-Shatti (1300–1379 AH / 1882–1959 CE) was a Syrian Hanbali jurist, expert in inheritance law (fara'id), and historian who served as the Hanbali mufti of Damascus and authored Mukhtasar Tabaqat al-Hanabila (Abridgment of the Generations of the Hanbalis) .
Lineage and Early Life
Muhammad Jamil ibn 'Umar ibn Muhammad ibn Hasan ibn 'Umar Jalabi al-Shatti was born in Damascus on 18 Safar 1300 AH . His family traced its paternal ancestry to Ma'ruf al-Karkhi and had originated in Baghdad, from where three brothers immigrated as merchants to Damascus around 1180 AH and established prominent Hanbali scholarly lineages .
Al-Shatti grew up under the care of his father, 'Umar al-Shatti . He studied introductory disciplines under his paternal uncle Murad al-Shatti and Abu al-Fath al-Khatib, and learned Hanbali jurisprudence and inheritance division from his father and his father's uncle Ahmad al-Shatti . He received hadith instruction from Bakri al-'Attar and Badr al-Din al-Hasani, attended the circles of Jamal al-Din al-Qasimi, and obtained formal authorizations (ijazah) from several contemporary scholars alongside his own extensive reading in Quranic exegesis, hadith, and legal treatises .
Career and Scholarly Activity
Beginning in 1313 AH, al-Shatti entered the court system of Damascus, working successively as a clerk in the sharia courts of al-Buzuriyya, al-'Amara, and al-Bab until 1327 AH . He then transferred to the civil courts, serving as an execution clerk, rights-court clerk, conciliation-court clerk, assistant judge in Douma, and member of the court in Hama in 1337 AH, before returning to the Damascus Sharia Court as Hanbali deputy judge and chief clerk until 1348 AH .
In 1348 AH, he was elected Mufti of the Hanbalis in Damascus, holding the position until his death . Alongside his legal offices, he served as the Hanbali imam at the Umayyad Mosque from 1334 AH, as the preacher (khatib) at al-Madrasa al-Bādhurā'iyya from 1352 AH, and was elected a member of the Association of Scholars in Damascus . He also contributed articles to scholarly periodicals, including Majallat al-Tamaddun al-Islami and al-Muqtabas .
As a biographer and historian, he compiled Rawd al-bashar fi a'yan Dimashq fi al-qarn al-thalith 'ashar (The Meadow of Humanity Concerning the Notables of Damascus in the Thirteenth Century) and traced legal history in al-Fath al-jali fi al-qada' al-hanbali (The Clear Manifestation of Hanbali Judiciary) .
Death
Al-Shatti resided in the 'Amara quarter of Damascus . He died on 16 Muharram 1379 AH and was buried in the cemetery of al-Dahdah (recorded in another source as the al-Dhahabiyya cemetery) .
Answer updated
List of Works
Mukhtasar Tabaqat al-Hanabila is a biographical dictionary dedicated to scholars of the Hanbali school of jurisprudence. The work provides concise biographical entries for notable Hanbali jurists, tracing them from the time of the school's eponym, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, up to the early fourteenth century AH.