Kamal al-Din al-Ghazzi
- Died
- 1214 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Kamal al-Din al-Ghazzi (1173–1214 AH / 1760–1799 CE) was a Syrian Shafi'i jurist, genealogist, historian, and poet from Damascus who served as the Shafi'i mufti of the city and authored biographical works, most notably al-Nat al-Akmal li-Ashab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal .
Lineage and early life
He was Abu al-Fadl Kamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Muhammad Sharif ibn Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayn al-Abidin Ali ibn Zakariyya ibn Badr al-Din Muhammad ibn Radi al-Din Muhammad ibn Radi al-Din Muhammad ibn Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Ghazzi al-Amiri al-Dimashqi . His ancestor Ahmad had migrated from Gaza to Damascus in 770 AH and died there in 822 AH .
Al-Ghazzi was born in Damascus on 19 Jumada al-Thaniya 1173 AH (another report gives 27 Jumada al-Akhira 1173 AH) . He was raised under the guardianship of his father, and he learned the recitation of the Quran under Muhammad al-Hijjawi .
Education and teachers
Al-Ghazzi studied with numerous scholars across various legal traditions. Among his prominent teachers were the Hanbali mufti of Damascus Ahmad al-Ba'li, Muhammad al-Lubadi, Muhammad Sa'id al-Suwaydi al-Baghdadi (from whom he received the transmission of the hadith of initial benevolence), Hibat Allah al-Naji, Kamal al-Din al-Bakri, Muhammad al-Kuzbari, and Ahmad al-Attar . He also obtained a formal teaching authorization from Yahya al-Jami al-Madani upon the latter's arrival in Damascus in 1205 AH .
Career and scholarly activities
Following the death of his father in Muharram 1203 AH, al-Ghazzi assumed the post of Shafi'i mufti of Damascus . Despite his Shafi'i affiliation, he demonstrated a deep dedication to Hanbali scholarship and compiled al-Nat al-Akmal li-Ashab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (The Most Complete Characterization of the Companions of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal) as a biographical dictionary structured into thirteen generations of twenty-five years each . He also penned a dedicated biography of Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi titled al-Mawrid al-Ansi fi Tarjamat al-Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi (The Friendly Source on the Biography of Shaykh Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi), alongside a twenty-part encyclopedic compilation of literary and scholarly benefits, al-Tadhkira al-Kamaliyya (The Kamalian Notebook) .
Al-Ghazzi maintained close personal and literary relationships with leading contemporary figures; he engaged in poetic correspondences with the Damascene chronicler Muhammad Khalil al-Muradi and the litterateur Ahmad al-Barbir .
Death
Al-Ghazzi died in Safar 1214 AH at the age of forty-one . He was buried in the Dahdah cemetery in Damascus beside the family plots of the Ghazzi lineage, and an elegiac chronogram was inscribed upon his gravestone by his friend Abd al-Halim al-Luji .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Nat al-Akmal li-Ashab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (The Most Complete Characterization of the Companions of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal) is a biographical dictionary of late scholars of the Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence. Composed as a biographical continuation to al-Manhaj al-Ahmad fi Tarajim Ashab al-Imam Ahmad by Mujir al-Din al-'Ulaymi, the work chronicles Hanbali jurists and scholars who died between 901 AH and 1207 AH.