Al-Suyuti

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī) ( 1445–1505 CE), or Al-Suyuti, was an Egyptian Sunni polymath. Considered the Mujtahid and Mujaddid of the Islamic 10th century. Foremost leading muhaddith, (hadith master) mufassir (Qu'ran exegete), faqīh (jurist), usuli (legal theorist), sufi (mystic), theologian, grammarian, linguist, rhetorician, philologist, lexicographer and historian, who authored works in virtually every Islamic science. For this reason, he was honoured one of the most prestigious and rarest titles; Shaykh al-Islām. He was described as one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages and is recognized today as one of the most prolific authors of all Islamic literature. Al-Suyuti wrote approximately one thousand works. His biographical dictionary Bughyat al-Wuʻāh fī Ṭabaqāt al-Lughawīyīn wa-al-Nuḥāh contains valuable accounts of prominent figures in the early development of Arabic philology. He was also in his time the leading authority of the Shafi'i school of thought (madhhab). Belonging to a family of Persian stock, Al-Suyuti was born on 3 October 1445 AD (1 Rajab 849 AH) in Cairo in the Mamluk Sultanate. According to al-Suyuti his ancestors came from al-Khudayriyya in Baghdad. His family moved to Asyut, hence the nisba "al-Suyuti". His father taught Shafi'i law at the Mosque and Khanqah of Shaykhu in Cairo, but died when al-Suyuti was 5 or 6 years old. Al-Suyuti grew up in an orphanage in Cairo. He became a Ḥāfiẓ of the Qu'ran at the age of eight years, followed by studying the Shafi'i and Hanafi jurisprudence (fiqh), traditions (hadith), exegesis (tafsir), theology, history, rhetoric, philosophy, philology, arithmetic, timekeeping (miqat) and medicine. He then dedicated his entire life to master the Sacred Sciences under approximately 150 sheikhs. Among them were renowned scholars who were the leading scholars of each sacred Islamic science of their time. Shaykh al-Islam Al-Kamal ibn al-Humam, a leading Hanafi faqih and polymath of his era.