Al-Suyuti

Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti
Shrine for Galal El-Dean al-Seyoti in Asiut
Born 3 October 1445 AD / 1 Rajab 849 AH
Cairo
Died 18 October 1505 AD / 19 Jumadi Ula 911 AH
Cairo
Region Egypt
Religion Islam
Denomination Sunni
Jurisprudence Shafi'i, Shadhili
Creed Ash'ari[1]
Main interest(s) Tafsir, Sharia, Fiqh, Hadith, Quran, Usul al-Fiqh, History, Aqidah
Notable work(s) Tafsir al-Jalalayn Tarikh Al Khulafa Khasais Kubra Khasais Sughra Mazhar Jami al Kabir Jami Al Saghir
Arabic name
Personal (Ism) ‘Abd al-Raḥmān
Patronymic (Nasab) ibn Abī Bakr ibn Muḥammad
Teknonymic (Kunya) Abū al-Faḍl
Epithet (Laqab) Jalāl al-Dīn
Toponymic (Nisba) al-Suyūṭī, al-Khuḍayrī, al-Shāfi‘ī

Abū al-Faḍl ‘Abd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Bakr ibn Muḥammad Jalāl al-Dīn al-Khuḍayrī al-Suyūṭī[2] (Arabic: جلال الدين عبد الرحمن بن أبي بكر بن محمد الخضيري السيوطي‎; c. 1445–1505 AD) was an Egyptian religious scholar, juristic expert and teacher, and one of the most prolific writers of the Middle Ages whose works deal with Islamic theology. From a family of Persian origin,[3] he was appointed to a chair in the mosque of Baybars in Cairo in 1486. He adhered to the Shafi'i madhhab and is one of the latter-day authorities of the Shafi'i School, considered to be one of the Ashabun-Nazzar (Assessors) whose degree of ijtihad is agreed upon. An alternative spelling of his name is Jalaluddin.

Biography

Al-Suyuti was born on 3 October 1445 AD (1 Rajab 849 AH) in Cairo, Egypt.[2][4] His mother was Circassian[5] and his father was of Persian origin, while Al-Suyuti says that his ancestors came from Al-Khudayriyya in Baghdad.[2] His family moved to Asyut in Mamluk Egypt, hence the nisba "Al-Suyuti".[4][6] Al-Suyuti's 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.[6][7]

Al-Suyuti studied various subjects, including: Shafi'i and Hanafi jurisprudence (fiqh), traditions (hadith), exegesis (tafsir), theology, history, rhetoric, philosophy, philology,[6] arithmetic, timekeeping (miqat) and medicine. He started teaching Shafi'i jurisprudence at the age of 18, at the same mosque as his father did. In 1486, Sultan Qaitbay appointed Al-Suyuti shaykh at the Khanqah of Baybars II, a Sufi lodge.[7] Al-Suyuti himself was a Sufi of the Shadhili order.[4]

At one point, Al-Suyuti was named the mujaddid of the 9th century AH. He also claimed to have become a mujtahid (someone with the authority to personally interpret sources in order to give legal statements) in jurisprudence, hadith studies, and Arabic language. This caused friction with scholars and ruling officials, and after a quarrel over the finances of the Sufi lodge, he retreated to the island of Rawda in 1501. Al-Suyuti died on 18 October 1505.[4][7]

Works

Al-Suyuti wrote many works on diverse subjects - on over 700 according to the Dalil makhtutat al-Suyuti ("Directory of al-Suyuti's manuscripts"),[6] although numbers vary from over 500[5] to 981 according to a study from 1995. However, these include short pamphlets, and legal opinions.[4]

He wrote his first book, Sharh Al-Isti'aadha wal-Basmalah in 866H, at the age of seventeen.

Ibn Ímād writes: "Most of his works become world famous in his lifetime." Renowned as a prolific writer, his student Dawudi said: "I was with the Shaykh Suyuti once, and he wrote three volumes on that day. He could dictate annotations on ĥadīth, and answer my objections at the same time. In his time he was the foremost scholar of the ĥadīth and associated sciences, of the narrators including the uncommon ones, the hadith matn (text), isnad (chain of narrators), the derivation of hadith rulings. He has himself told me, that he had memorized One Hundred Thousand hadith."[8][9]

In Ḥusn al-muḥaḍarah al-Suyuti lists 283 of his works. His subjects include religion and medicine. As with Abu'l-Faraj ibn al-Jawzi in his medicinal works, al-Suyuti writes almost exclusively on prophetic medicine, rather than the Islamic-Greek synthesis of medicinal tradition found in the works of Al-Dhahabi. Al-Suyuti primarily focuses on diet and natural remedies for serious ailments such as rabies and smallpox, and for simple conditions such as headaches and nosebleeds. He also touches on the cosmology behind the principles of medical ethics.[10]

Major Works[11]

  • Tafsir al-Jalalayn (Arabic: تفسير الجلالين‎, lit. 'Commentary of the Two Jalals'); a Qur'anic exegesis written by Al-Suyuti and his teacher Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli[6]
  • Al-Itqān fi ‘Ulum Al-Qur’an (translated into English as The Perfect Guide to the Sciences of the Qur'an, ISBN 9781859642412)
  • Al-Tibb al Nabawi (Arabic: الطب النبوي‎, lit. 'Prophetic medicine')
  • Al-Jaami' al-Kabir (Arabic: الجامع الكبير‎)
  • Al-Jaami' al-Saghir (Arabic: الجامع الصغير‎)
  • Dur al-Manthur (Arabic: درالمنثور‎) in tafsir
  • Alfiyyah al-Hadith [12]
  • Tadrib al-Rawi (Arabic: تدريب الراوي‎) both in hadith terminology
  • History of the Caliphs (Tarikh al-khulafa)
    • The Khalifas who took the right way, a partial translation of the History of the Caliphs, covering the first four Rashidun caliphs and Hasan ibn Ali
  • Tabaqat al-huffaz, an appendix to al-Dhahabi's Tadhkirat al-huffaz
  • Nuzhat al-julasāʼ fī ashʻār al-nisāʼ (Arabic: نزهة الجلساء في أشعار النساء‎), 'an anthology of women's verse'[13]
  • Al-Khasais-ul-Kubra, which discusses the miracles of Islamic prophet Muhammad
  • Al-Muzhir. (linguistics).

Selected Works

  • Suyūṭī (1908), Bughyat al-wuʻāh fī ṭabaqāt al-lughawīyīn wa-al-nuḥāh, Cairo: Maṭbaʻat al-Saʻādah
  • Suyūṭī (1909), Husn Al-Muhadarah Fi Akhbar Misr Wa Al-Qahirah, Cairo: Al-Sharafiyah Press
  • Suyūṭī (1927), Hitti, Philip K, ed., Naẓm al-ʻiqyān fī aʻyān al-aʻyān, New York: Syrian American Press
  • Suyūṭī (1343), Al-Itqan fi ‘Ulum al-Qur’an, Cairo
  • Suyūṭī (1908), Mufḥimāt al-aqrān fī mubhimāt al-Qurʾān (1 ed.), Miṣr: Maṭbaʻat al-Saʻādah
  • Suyūṭī (1909), Kitāb hamʻ al-hawāmiʻ sharḥ jamʻ al-jawāmiʻ fī ʻilm al-ʻarabīyah (1 ed.), Miṣr: Maṭbaʻat al-Saʻādah
  • Suyūṭī (1905) [1904], Sharḥ shawāhid al-Mughnī (Arabic Grammar, Poetry), Miṣr (Egypt): al-Maṭbaʻah al-Bahīyah
  • Suyūṭī (c. 1935), Sharḥ al-ṣudūr bi-sharḥ ḥāl al-mawtī wa-al-qubūr (Islamic eschatology), Cairo: Maṭbaʻat Dār Iḥyāʾ al-Kutub al-ʻArabīyah
  • Suyūṭī (1966), Tadrīb al-rāwī fī sharḥ Taqrīb al-Nawāwī, Cairo: Dār al-Kutub al-Ḥadīthah (Nawawī, 1233-1277, Taqrīb wa-al-taysīr li-maʻrifat sunan al-bashīr al-nadhīr, Hadith)
  • Suyūṭī (1971), al-Shamārīkh fī ʻilm al-tārīkh, Baghdād: Maṭbaʻat Asʻad
  • Suyūṭī (1973) [1307 AH], Kitāb al-iqtirāḥ fī ʻilm uṣūl al-naḥw (2 ed.), Ḥalab: Dār al-Maʻārif
  • Suyūṭī (1978), Furat, Ahmed Subhi, ed., al-Iqtirāḥ fī ʻilm uṣūl al-naḥw (Arabic language, Grammar, Early works to 1800), Istānbūl: Maṭbaʻat Kullīyat al-ādāb
  • Suyūṭī (1978), Lubāb al-nuqūl fī asbāb al-nuzūl (Koran, criticism, interpretation, etc.) (1 ed.), Bayrūt: Dār Iḥyā' al-ʻUlūm
  • Suyūṭī (1980–1989), Siham al-isabah fi al-daàwat al-mustajabah, al-Madinah: Tawzì al-Maktabah al-Ìlmiyah
  • Suyūṭī (1985), Faḍḍ al-wiʻāʼ fī aḥādīth rafʻ al-yadayn fī al-duʻā (Prayer in the Hadith), al-Zarqāʼ, al-Urdun (Zarqa, Jordan): Maktabat al-Manār
  • Suyūṭī (1986), Nuzhat al-julasāʾ fī ash ʻār al-nisāʾ
  • Suyūṭī (1984), Asbāl al-kisāʾ ʻalʹa al-nisāʾ (Muslim women, Hadith, Authorities) (1 ed.), Bayrūt (Beirut): Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah
  • Suyūṭī (1983), Kitāb al-Radd ʻalá man akhlada ilá al-arḍ wa-jahila anna al-ijtihād fī kull ʻaṣr farḍ, Bayrūt, Lubnān (Beirut, Lebanon): Dār al-Kutub al-ʻIlmīyah
  • Suyūṭī (1980), Wasāʻil ilā maʻrifat al-awāʾil
  • Suyūṭī (1976), Ṭabaqāt al-mufassirīn, Cairo
  • Suyūṭī (1980–1989), Bahjah al-marḍīyah [i.e., al-murḍiyah] fī sharḥ al-Alfīyah (Ibn Mālik, Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh, d. 1274, Alfīyah, Arabic language, Grammar), Tehran: al-Maktabah al-Islāmīyah
  • Suyūṭī (1983), Tafsīr al-durr al-manthūr fī al-tafsīr al-maʾthūr, 8, Bayrūt: Dār al-fikr
  • Suyūṭī (1987), al-Bāhir fī ḥukm al-Nabī bi-al-bāṭin wa-al-ẓāhir, al-Qāhirah: Dār al-Salām

See also

References

  1. ↑ Spevack, Aaron (2014). The Archetypal Sunni Scholar: Law, Theology, and Mysticism in the Synthesis of Al-Bajuri. State University of New York Press. pp. 99, 179. ISBN 143845371X.
  2. 1 2 3 Geoffroy, E. (1960–2007). "al-Suyūṭī". In P. Bearman. Encyclopaedia of Islam (2nd ed.). ISBN 9789004161214.
  3. ↑ Meri, Josef W. (January 2006). Medieval Islamic Civilization, Volume 1 An Encyclopedia. Routledge. p. 784. ISBN 978-0-415-96691-7. The family of al-Suyuti, of Persian origin, settled during the Mamluk period in Asyut, in Upper Egypt (from where they derive their name).
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Meri, Josef W., ed. (2005). "Suyuti, Al-, 'Abd al-Rahman". Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. pp. 784–786. ISBN 978-1-135-45603-0.
  5. 1 2 Irwin, R. (1998). Julie Scott Meisami; Paul Starkey, eds. Encyclopedia of Arabic Literature. Taylor & Francis. p. 746. ISBN 978-0-415-18572-1.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Oliver Leaman, ed. (2006). "Al-Suyuti". The Qur'an: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 618–920. ISBN 978-0-415-32639-1.
  7. 1 2 3 Dhanani, Alnoor (2007). "Suyūṭī: Abū al‐Faḍl ʿAbd al‐Raḥmān Jalāl al‐Dīn al‐Suyūṭī". In Thomas Hockey. The Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers. New York: Springer. pp. 1112–3. ISBN 978-0-387-31022-0.
  8. ↑ Al-Kawākib as-Sāyirah 1/228
  9. ↑ Hasan, Abu, Imām Jalāluddin Suyūţi - Biography and Works (pdf), www.sunniport.com, pp. 6–7
  10. ↑ Emilie Savage-Smith, "Medicine." Taken from Encyclopedia of the History of Arabic Science, Volume 3: Technology, Alchemy and Life Sciences, pg. 928. Ed. Roshdi Rasheed. London: Routledge, 1996. ISBN 0415124123
  11. ↑ Ghaffari, Talib (7 January 2011). "Writings of Imam Jalaluddin al-Suyuti". Maktabah Mujaddidiyah. Retrieved 23 November 2013.
  12. ↑ "USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts". Web Archive. 2 January 2008. Archived from the original on 2 January 2008. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  13. ↑ James Mansfield Nichols, 'The Arabic Verses of Qasmūna bint Ismāʿil ibn Bagdālah', International Journal of Middle East Studies, 13 (1981), 155-58.
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