Abū Muḥammad Maḥmūd ibn Aḥmad ibn Mūsā Badr al-Dīn al-ʿAynī, often quoted simply as al-'Ayni ( ar, بدر الدين العيني, Badr al-ʿAynī; born 762
AH/1360 CE, died 855 AH/1453 CE)
[Abdal-Hakim Murad – Contentions 8](_blank)
/ref> was a Sunni Islamic scholar
In Islam, the ''ulama'' (; ar, علماء ', singular ', "scholar", literally "the learned ones", also spelled ''ulema''; feminine: ''alimah'' ingularand ''aalimath'' lural are the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious ...
of the Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...
madh'hab
A ( ar, مذهب ', , "way to act". pl. مَذَاهِب , ) is a school of thought within ''fiqh'' (Islamic jurisprudence).
The major Sunni Mathhab are Hanafi, Maliki, Shafi'i and Hanbali.
They emerged in the ninth and tenth centuries CE a ...
and the Shadhili
The Shadhili Order ( ar, الطريقة الشاذلية) is a tariqah or Sufi order of Sunni Islam founded by al-Shadhili in the 13th century and is followed by millions of people around the world. Many followers (Arabic ''murids'', "seekers") ...
tariqa
A tariqa (or ''tariqah''; ar, طريقة ') is a school or order of Sufism, or specifically a concept for the mystical teaching and spiritual practices of such an order with the aim of seeking ''haqiqa'', which translates as "ultimate truth".
...
. ''Al-'Ayni'' is an abbreviation for ''al-'Ayntābi'', referring to his native city.
Biography
He was born into a scholarly family in 762 AH (1360 CE) in the city of 'Ayntāb (now Gaziantep in modern Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with a small portion on the Balkan Peninsula in ...
). He studied history, '' adab'', and Islamic religious sciences, and was fluent in Turkish. There is some evidence that he also knew at least some Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
. In 788 AH (1386 CE) he travelled to Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
, where he met the Hanafi shaykh al-Sayrāmī, who was the head of the newly established Zāhiriyah '' madrasah'' (school) and '' khānqah'' ( Sufi retreat) in Cairo. Al-Sayrami invited al-'Ayni to accompany him home to Cairo
Cairo ( ; ar, القاهرة, al-Qāhirah, ) is the Capital city, capital of Egypt and its largest city, home to 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, List of ...
, where he became one of the Sufis of the Zāhiriyah. This was a step upward for the young al-'Ayni, as it represented entry into "an institution with ties to the highest level of the ruling elite."
He established a good reputation and initially met with favor. However, after al-Sayrāmī died in 790 AH (1388 CE), al-'Ayni became involved in a personality conflict with the amir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
Jārkas al-Khalīlī, who tried to run him out of Cairo. Al-'Ayni later described al-Khalīlī as arrogant and dictatorial – "a man pleased by his own opinion." He was saved from expulsion by one of his teachers, Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini
Abū Hafs Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī( ar, ابو حفص سراج الدين البلقيني الشافعي ; 1324–1403 CE); aka Sirajuddin was an Egyptian scholar of Islamic Jurisprudence. Regarded as the leading Shafi'i faqih and mujtahid o ...
, but prudently decided to leave for a time anyway.
From Cairo he went to teach in Damascus, where he was appointed ''muhtasib
A muḥtasib ( ar, محتسب, from the root ''ḥisbah'', or "accountability"Sami Zubaida (2005), Law and Power in the Islamic World, , pages 58-60) was "a holder of the office of al-hisbah in classical Islamic administrations", according to Ox ...
'' (overseer of sharia in the marketplace) by the amir
Emir (; ar, أمير ' ), sometimes transliterated amir, amier, or ameer, is a word of Arabic origin that can refer to a male monarch, aristocrat, holder of high-ranking military or political office, or other person possessing actual or cer ...
, and returned to Cairo some time before 800 AH (1398 CE.)
Once back in Cairo, al-'Ayni strengthened his social and political position by associating with several amirs, making the Hajj with the amir Tamarbughā al-Mashtūb. He also had the patronage of the powerful amir Jakm min 'Awd, who was ''dawadār'' (literally "inkstand-holder": a secretary or confidential advisor) to the Sultan Barqūq. After the death of Barqūq, al-'Ayni became the ''muhtasib'' of Cairo, displacing the scholar al-Maqrīzī
Al-Maqrīzī or Maḳrīzī (Arabic: ), whose full name was Taqī al-Dīn Abū al-'Abbās Aḥmad ibn 'Alī ibn 'Abd al-Qādir ibn Muḥammad al-Maqrīzī (Arabic: ) (1364–1442) was a medieval Egyptian Arab historian during the Mamluk era, kn ...
. According to al-Maqrīzī (an interested party) it was Jakm who obtained the post for al-'Ayni; however, the historian Ibn Taghribīrdī states that it was a cooperative effort by Jakm and two other amirs, Qalamtāy al-'Uthmānī and Taghribīrdī al-Qurdamī.[Ibn Taghribīrdī, ''al-Nujūm'', 15:287.] In any case, this was the beginning of a lifelong feud between the two '' 'ulama''' : "From that day on, there was hostility between the two men until they both died."
Al-'Ayni and al-Maqrīzī succeeded each other as ''muhtasib'' of Cairo several times over the next few years, probably a reflection of the power struggle between Jakm min 'Awd and al-Maqrīzī's patron, Yashbak al-Sha'bānī. Neither held the post for very long. In the reign of al-Nasir Faraj
Al-Nasir Faraj or Nasir-ad-Din Faraj ( Circassian: Фэрадж ан-Насир) (Urdu; Arabic; Persian: ; r. 1399–1412 CE) also Faraj ibn Barquq was born in 1386 and succeeded his father Sayf-ad-Din Barquq as the second Sultan of the Burji dy ...
, Barqūq's son and successor, al-'Ayni was appointed to the "lucrative and prestigious" post of ''nāzir al-ahbas'' (overseer of pious endowments.) He would be dismissed from and reappointed to this post several times, finally securing it for good in the reign of Sultan Mu'ayyad Shaykh and keeping it until he was ninety-one.
Al-'Ayni's prestige grew as he aged. Mu'ayyad Shaykh named him ambassador to the Qaramanids in 823 AH (1420 CE.) Later in life he would be called upon to lecture on learned topics before the Sultan, sometimes reading history aloud in Arabic
Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
and explaining it in Turkish for the Sultan's benefit. Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbāy is reported to have said "Islam is known only through him" and ''law lā al-'ayntābi la-kāna fī islāmina shay','' "If not for al-'Ayntabi there would be something suspect in our Islam." Barsbāy sometimes sent al-'Ayni as his representative to greet foreign dignitaries, apparently because of his fluency in several languages.[Al-'Ayni, '' 'Iqd al-Jumān'', 2:21.]
Barsbāy often turned to al-'Ayni for advice on legal matters, and named him chief Hanafi
The Hanafi school ( ar, حَنَفِية, translit=Ḥanafiyah; also called Hanafite in English), Hanafism, or the Hanafi fiqh, is the oldest and one of the four traditional major Sunni schools ( maddhab) of Islamic Law (Fiqh). It is named a ...
''qadi
A qāḍī ( ar, قاضي, Qāḍī; otherwise transliterated as qazi, cadi, kadi, or kazi) is the magistrate or judge of a '' sharīʿa'' court, who also exercises extrajudicial functions such as mediation, guardianship over orphans and mino ...
'' (judge) in 829 AH (1426 CE.) He was dismissed from this post after three years; by his own report, both he and the chief Shafi'i
The Shafii ( ar, شَافِعِي, translit=Shāfiʿī, also spelled Shafei) school, also known as Madhhab al-Shāfiʿī, is one of the four major traditional schools of religious law (madhhab) in the Sunnī branch of Islam. It was founded by ...
''qadi'', Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, were dismissed at the same time because their constant feuding was distracting them from their duties; though he adds that this was a calumny spread by his enemies at court. He was later reappointed.
In the reign of Barsbāy's successor, al-Aziz Jaqmaq, al-'Ayni was dismissed as chief Hanafi ''qadi'' again. He withdrew from court and concentrated on his scholarly writing. In 853 AH (1449 CE) he was dismissed as ''nāzir al-ahbas'', probably because of failing memory.[Ibn Taghribīrdī, ''History of Egypt 1382–1467'', trans. Popper, 19:118.] He died in 855 AH (1451 CE) at the age of ninety-three, having outlived all his children, and was buried in his own ''madrasah'' in Cairo.
Works
*''Umdat al-Qari
Sahih al-Bukhari ( ar, صحيح البخاري, translit=Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī), group=note is a ''hadith'' collection and a book of ''sunnah'' compiled by the Persian scholar Muḥammad ibn Ismā‘īl al-Bukhārī (810–870) around 846. Al ...
''
*''al-Binaya Sharh al-Hidaya''
*''al-Sayf al-Muhammad fī Sīrat al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad'' (a biography of the sultan Mu'ayyad Shaykh)
*'' 'Iqd al-Jūman fī Ta'rikh Ahl al-Zamán'', translated to French as "Le collier des perles" ("The Pearl Necklace")
*''ar-Rad al-Waafir'' ( ar, الرد الوافر)
*''Nukhab al-Afkar fi Tahqiq Mabani al-Akhbar fi Sharh Ma`ani al-Aathar''
*''Sharh Sunan Abu daud'' - published in Pakistan
See also
* List of Islamic scholars
* List of Hanafis
The following is the list of notable religious personalities who followed the Hanafi Islamic madhab followed by the section of Contemporary living Hanafi scholars, in chronological order:
*Abu Hanifa (d. 767)
*Ibn al-Mubarak (d. 797)
*Abu Yusuf (d ...
* List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
The list of Ash'aris and Maturidis includes prominent adherents of the Ash'ari and Maturidi schools of thought. The Ash'aris are a doctrinal school of thought named after Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari, and the Maturidi school is named for Abu Mans ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Badr Al-Din Al-Ayni
Hanafis
Maturidis
Hadith scholars
Arab historians
Egyptian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Syrian Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Sunni Muslim scholars
Sunni imams
1361 births
1451 deaths
14th-century jurists
15th-century jurists