Shams al-Din al-Barmawi
- Died
- 831 AH
- Born in
- Cairo
Shams al-Din al-Barmawi (763–831 AH / 1362–1428 CE) was an Egyptian Shafi'i jurist, legal theorist, and hadith scholar who taught in Cairo, Damascus, Mecca, and Jerusalem .
Lineage and early life
He was Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abd al-Da'im ibn Musa ibn Abd al-Da'im ibn Faris ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Nu'aymi al-Asqalani al-asl al-Barmawi al-Misri al-Shafi'i . His ancestral origin traced to Ashkelon, while his nisba al-Barmawi derived from Barma, a village in Egypt's Gharbiyya province, and al-Nu'aymi linked to Nu'aym al-Mujmar, the client of Umar ibn al-Khattab . His father was an elementary school teacher (mu'addib) whose name was originally Faris before al-Barmawi changed it to Abd al-Da'im . Al-Barmawi was born in Cairo in the middle of Dhu al-Qa'da 763 AH (with another report giving 762 AH) . He memorized the Quran and foundational texts in his youth and embarked on his studies amid straitened financial circumstances and frequent hardship .
Education and teachers
Al-Barmawi began his scholarly training under his relative Majd al-Din Isma'il al-Barmawi . He closely attached himself to Badr al-Din al-Zarkashi, mastering various disciplines under his guidance; al-Zarkashi held him in high esteem and authorized him to edit and refine several of his own compositions . He attended the circles of Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini, reading al-Muzani's Mukhtasar with him, and received authorization from him to issue legal rulings and teach . He also studied under Siraj al-Din Ibn al-Mulaqqin, Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi in hadith, Izz al-Din Ibn Jama'a, al-Abnasi, Ibrahim ibn Ishaq al-Amidi, and Abd al-Rahman ibn Ali al-Qari .
Career and travels
In Cairo, al-Barmawi served as a deputy judge under Badr al-Din Ibn Abi al-Baqa, then under Jalal al-Din al-Bulqini, and later under al-Ikhna'i, before stepping away from judicial administration to devote himself to teaching and writing . He taught abridged Shafi'i legal manuals such as al-Tanbih, al-Hawi, and al-Minhaj, completing one work each year and hosting a banquet for his students upon finishing it .
In 821 AH, he traveled to Damascus at the invitation of his former fellow student Najm al-Din Ibn Hijji, and returned there in 823 AH, where he deputized in the judiciary and preaching (khitaba), was appointed to issue fatwas at Dar al-Adl, and taught at the Rawahiyya and Aminiyya madrasas . Following the death of his son Muhammad in Damascus, he returned to Cairo in 826 AH . In Cairo, his financial circumstances eased; he was appointed to teach fiqh at the Mu'ayyadiyya madrasa and discharged the teaching offices of al-Wali al-Iraqi on behalf of the latter's grandson .
Al-Barmawi performed the pilgrimage in 828 AH and resided in Mecca during 829 AH, where he taught and authored his four-volume commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, titled al-Lami al-Sabih bi-Sharh al-Jami al-Sahih (The Radiant Dawn in Commentating the Authentic Collection) . He returned to Cairo in 830 AH and was subsequently appointed to teach and oversee the Salahiyya madrasa in Jerusalem .
Students and scholarly standing
Al-Barmawi gained renown across Egypt, Syria, and the Hijaz for his mastery of jurisprudence, legal theory, hadith, inheritance law, and Arabic grammar . Among his notable students were Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli, who resided with him at the Baybarsiyya in Cairo, Sharaf al-Din al-Munawi, Zayn al-Din Ridwan, Taqi al-Din Ibn Fahd in Mecca, and Ibn Nasir al-Din in Damascus . In legal theory, he composed a didactic thousand-line poem and elucidated it in al-Fawaid al-Sunniya fi Sharh al-Alfiya (The Sublime Benefits in Explaining the Alfiyya), which he noted encompassed the bulk of his lifetime's research . He also compiled Jam' al-Udda li-Fahm al-Umda (Gathering the Equipment to Understand the Umda), an extensive commentary on Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi's Umdat al-Ahkam .
Death
Shortly after arriving in Jerusalem to take up his post at the Salahiyya, al-Barmawi fell ill . During his final illness, he remarked on the irony of dying just as his poverty had given way to comfortable sustenance: "When we lived, we died" . He died on Thursday, 3 Jumada al-Akhira 831 AH (with another source citing 12 Jumada al-Akhira) and was buried in the Mamilla cemetery in Jerusalem near the grave of Shaykh Abu Abd Allah al-Qurashi .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Fawaid al-Sunniya fi Sharh al-Alfiya (The Sublime Benefits in Explaining the Alfiyya) is an extensive commentary on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence (usul al-fiqh), written to elucidate the author's own didactic poem, al-Nubdha al-Alfiyya fi al-Usul al-Fiqhiyya.
al-Lami al-Sabih bi-Sharh al-Jami al-Sahih (The Radiant Dawn in Commentating the Authentic Collection) is an extensive commentary on al-Bukhari's hadith collection Sahih al-Bukhari.