Taqi al-Din Ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Tamimi
- Died
- 1010 AH
- Born in
- -
Taqi al-Din Ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Tamimi (c. 950–1010 AH / c. 1543–1601 CE) was a Hanafi jurist, judge, and biographer from Gaza and Egypt, best known for his biographical dictionary al-Tabaqat al-Sunniyya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiyya .
Life and career
His full name was Taqi al-Din ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Tamimi al-Dari al-Ghazzi al-Misri al-Hanafi . Early biographical sources do not record his exact year of birth, though modern biographers have estimated it around 950 AH (1543 CE) based on indications that he died in mature age .
In his early life, al-Tamimi was disinclined toward holding public posts, occupying himself primarily with worship and ascetic devotion, before eventually entering the judiciary . He served as a judge in Giza and its surrounding districts, in Fuwwah in Lower Egypt—where he completed his biographical compendium in 989 AH—and, according to a marginal note in an authorial manuscript copy of his work, as a judge in Konya . Al-Tamimi traveled across various Ottoman regions, including Anatolia (al-Rum), where he established enduring ties and literary correspondence with scholars such as Shihab al-Din al-Khafaji .
In his family life, al-Tamimi suffered from an acrimonious relationship with his son Hasan, whom he described as undutiful, satirizing him in verse and composing a dedicated treatise against filial disobedience titled al-Sayf al-Barraq fi 'Unuq al-Walad al-'Aqq ("The Gleaming Sword at the Neck of the Undutiful Child") .
Scholarly standing and reception
Al-Tamimi earned broad recognition for his mastery of legal biography and history. His major biographical compendium was dedicated to the Ottoman Sultan Murad III and commended by prominent contemporary Ottoman scholars, including Khwaja Sa'd al-Din, Juwizadah, Zakariyya, Abd al-Ghani, and Ahmad al-Ansari .
Later historians held his biographical scholarship in high esteem; Haji Khalifa praised his work as the most comprehensive and sublime biographical dictionary dedicated to the scholars of the Hanafi school, observing that he compiled preceding biographical layers and extended them to the close of the tenth century AH . The biographer Muhammad Amin al-Muhibbi likewise commended the work after consulting parts of it, highlighting its detailed documentation of Ottoman scholars and dignitaries .
Death
Al-Tamimi died in Egypt on Saturday, 5 Jumada al-Akhira 1010 AH (1601 CE) . Haji Khalifa also recorded an alternate death year of 1005 AH alongside 1010 AH .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Tabaqat al-Sunniya fi Tarajim al-Hanafiya (The Sublime Biographical Layers of the Hanafis) is a biographical dictionary dedicated to the scholars of the Hanafi legal school. Completed in 989 AH, the work covers the biographies, virtues, authored treatises, selected poetry, and rare reports of Hanafi figures from the school's origins up to the close of the tenth century AH / sixteenth century CE.