Shihab al-Din al-Khuwayi
- Died
- 693 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Shihab al-Din al-Khuwayi (626–693 AH / 1229–1294 CE) was a Shafi'i jurist, scholar, and chief judge from Damascus, known for versifying Ibn al-Salah's treatise on hadith terminology in his poem Nazm Ulum al-Hadith.
Origin and Education
He was Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn al-Khalil ibn Sa'ada ibn Ja'far ibn Isa ibn Muhammad al-Khuwayi, surnamed Shihab al-Din, of the Muhallabi and Azdi lineages. His family traced its origins to Khoy in Azerbaijan, but he was born in Damascus in Shawwal 626 AH (another report mentions Rajab of that year). He was the son of Chief Judge Shams al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn al-Khalil al-Khuwayi.
Al-Khuwayi studied hadith and religious sciences under a number of prominent scholars, including Abu al-Munajja Abd Allah ibn al-Latti, Abu al-Hasan Ibn al-Muqayyar, Alam al-Din al-Sakhawi, Ibn al-Salah, and Ibn al-Zabidi, and received transmission authorizations (ijazat) from scholars in Isfahan. He traveled to Baghdad and eastward to Khurasan, where he studied under al-Ala al-Tawusi and al-Qutb, a student of Fakhr al-Din al-Razi.
Career and Judicial Offices
Early in his career, al-Khuwayi taught at al-Madrasa al-Dimaghiya in Damascus while still a young man. He subsequently served as a judge in Jerusalem. During the turmoil caused by the invasion of the Mongol ruler Hulagu, he relocated to Egypt, where he was appointed judge over the province of al-Gharbiyya and took up residence in al-Mahalla.
In Rajab 681 AH, the Mamluk sultan al-Mansur Qalawun appointed al-Khuwayi judge of Cairo and Lower Egypt. In Muharram 686 AH, he was transferred to Damascus as its chief Shafi'i judge, and following his performance of the pilgrimage, he also assumed teaching responsibilities at al-Madrasa al-Nasiriyya.
Scholarly Standing and Students
Al-Khuwayi attained expertise across multiple disciplines, including jurisprudence, theology (kalam), medicine, and literature. Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi described him as an accomplished, versatile imam and author who combined numerous virtues. In early 691 AH, he completed his didactic poem Nazm Ulum al-Hadith (also entitled Aqsa al-Amal wa al-Sul fi Ilm Hadith al-Rasul), versifying Ibn al-Salah's work in the rajaz meter. He also composed a comprehensive work encompassing twenty branches of knowledge.
Among those who transmitted from him or studied under him were Abu al-Hajjaj al-Mizzi—who selected forty diverse-chained hadiths for him—as well as al-Dhahabi, Taj al-Din Ibn Abi Ja'far, Umar ibn al-Hajib, and Jamal al-Din Ibn al-Sabuni.
Death
Al-Khuwayi died on Thursday, 25 Ramadan 693 AH (September 1294 CE) in Damascus. He was buried in his private mausoleum (turbah) at the foot of Mount Qasiyun.
Answer updated
List of Works
Nazm Ulum al-Hadith, also known as Aqsa al-Amal wa al-Sul fi Ilm Hadith al-Rasul, is a didactic poem on hadith terminology composed in the rajaz meter. Serving as the earliest known versified abridgment of the foundational hadith handbook Ulum al-Hadith by Ibn al-Salah, the text condenses core hadith concepts and is structured primarily around the sixty-five categories of hadith sciences.