Shams al-Din Ibn al-Ghazzi
- Died
- 1167 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Shams al-Din Ibn al-Ghazzi (1096–1167 AH / 1685–1753 CE) was a Syrian Shafi'i jurist, hadith scholar, historian, genealogist, and poet who served as the Shafi'i mufti of Damascus and composed the biographical dictionary Diwan al-Islam .
Lineage and Early Life
He was Abu al-Ma'ali Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Zayn al-Abidin ibn Ali ibn Zakariyya ibn Muhammad al-Amiri al-Qurashi al-Ghazzi al-Dimashqi . He was born in Damascus on Friday night after the call to the night prayer, on the 18th of Sha'ban 1096 AH . His mother died before he reached the age of seven, and he was raised under the guardianship of his father, Abd al-Rahman al-Ghazzi . In his childhood, he learned the Quran under Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Hafiz, who subsequently taught him the didactic poems of al-Jazariyya, the Muqaddima of al-Maydani, and the Muqaddima of al-Tibi in the rules of recitation (tajwid), after which he trained in Arabic calligraphy .
Education and Career
Ibn al-Ghazzi pursued religious education under his father and various Damascene scholars, including Abd al-Rahman al-Mujallad, Abd al-Ghani al-Nabulsi, and Khalil al-Dasuqi, attending the latter's lectures on the commentaries on al-Nawawi's al-Minhaj and Zakariyya al-Ansari's al-Tahrir .
He rose to become the Shafi'i mufti of Damascus and held the imamate at the Umayyad Mosque, where Ali al-Tayyan acted as his deputy for the initial prayer at the Shafi'i niche . His students included the Hanbali jurist Ahmad ibn Abd Allah al-Ba'li, who studied tafsir, hadith, and other sciences under him, and Sulayman ibn Sawwar, who studied Ibn Aqil's grammatical commentary with him .
Scholarly Standing and Death
Ibn al-Ghazzi was recognized for his retentive memory, sharpness of intellect, and breadth of knowledge in Islamic law, hadith, history, and genealogy . In the field of history and biography, he authored Diwan al-Islam, an extensive biographical compendium covering scholars, men of letters, kings, and ministers throughout Islamic history . In hadith, his contributions include Lata'if al-minna fi fawa'id khidmat al-sunna, a scholarly register (thabat), as well as lectures on Sahih al-Bukhari titled Durus fi al-kalam ala al-Jami al-Sahih .
He died in Damascus in 1167 AH (1753 CE) .
Answer updated
List of Works
Diwan al-Islam is a biographical dictionary surveying notable figures across Islamic history. Also recorded as Diwan al-Islam fi al-tarikh wa-tarajim al-rijal, the work was composed as a concise compendium to bring together prominent individuals from every discipline who left a significant impact across the Islamic tradition.