Badr al-Din al-Ayni
Encyclopedia
Badr al-Din al-'Ayni born 762 AH
(1360 CE), died 855 AH (1453 CE) was a Sunni Islamic scholar of the Hanafi
madh'hab. Al-'Ayni is an abbreviation for al-'Ayntābi, referring to his native city.
(1360 CE) in the city of 'Ayntāb (which is now Gaziantep
in modern Turkey
). 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. In 788 AH (1386 CE) he travelled to Jerusalem, where he met the Hanafi shaykh al-Sayrāmī, who was the head of the newly established Zāhiriyah madrasah
(school) and khānqah
(Sufi retreat.) Al-Sayrami invited al-'Ayni to accompany him home to Cairo
, 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 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, but prudently decided to leave for a time anyway.
From Cairo he went to teach in Damascus
, where he was appointed muhtasib
(overseer of sharia
in the marketplace) by the amir, 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
. 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. 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, 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 the 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 and explaining it in Turkish for the Sultan's benefit. The 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.
Barsbāy often turned to al-'Ayni for advice on legal matters, and named him chief Hanafi
qadi
(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
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. 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.
Islamic calendar
The Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...
(1360 CE), died 855 AH (1453 CE) was a Sunni Islamic scholar of the Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
madh'hab. Al-'Ayni is an abbreviation for al-'Ayntābi, referring to his native city.
Biography
He was born into a scholarly family in 762 AHIslamic calendar
The Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...
(1360 CE) in the city of 'Ayntāb (which is now Gaziantep
Gaziantep
Gaziantep , Ottoman Turkish: Ayintab) previously and still informally called Antep; ʻayn tāb is a city in southeast Turkey and amongst the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world. The city is located 185 kilometres northeast of Adana and 127 kilometres by road north of Aleppo, Syria...
in modern Turkey
Turkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
). He studied history, adab
Adab
Adab or Udab was an ancient Sumerian city between Telloh and Nippur. It was located at the site of modern Bismaya or Bismya in the Wasit Governorate of Iraq.-History:...
, and Islamic religious sciences, and was fluent in Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
. There is some evidence that he also knew at least some Persian. In 788 AH (1386 CE) he travelled to Jerusalem, where he met the Hanafi shaykh al-Sayrāmī, who was the head of the newly established Zāhiriyah madrasah
Madrasah
Madrasah is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, whether secular or religious...
(school) and khānqah
Khanqah
A Khanqah, Khaniqah , ribat, zawiya, or tekke is a building designed specifically for gatherings of a Sufi brotherhood, or tariqa, and is a place for spiritual retreat and character reformation...
(Sufi retreat.) Al-Sayrami invited al-'Ayni to accompany him home to Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
, 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 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, but prudently decided to leave for a time anyway.
From Cairo he went to teach in Damascus
Damascus
Damascus , commonly known in Syria as Al Sham , and as the City of Jasmine , is the capital and the second largest city of Syria after Aleppo, both are part of the country's 14 governorates. In addition to being one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, Damascus is a major...
, where he was appointed muhtasib
Muhtasib
A ' was a supervisor of bazaars and trade in the mediæval Islamic countries. His duty was to ensure that public business was conducted in accordance with the law of sharia....
(overseer of sharia
Sharia
Sharia law, is the moral code and religious law of Islam. Sharia is derived from two primary sources of Islamic law: the precepts set forth in the Quran, and the example set by the Islamic prophet Muhammad in the Sunnah. Fiqh jurisprudence interprets and extends the application of sharia to...
in the marketplace) by the amir, 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
Hajj
The Hajj is the pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. It is one of the largest pilgrimages in the world, and is the fifth pillar of Islam, a religious duty that must be carried out at least once in their lifetime by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford to do so...
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
Sultan
Sultan is a title with several historical meanings. Originally, it was an Arabic language abstract noun meaning "strength", "authority", "rulership", and "dictatorship", derived from the masdar سلطة , meaning "authority" or "power". Later, it came to be used as the title of certain rulers who...
Barqūq. After the death of Barqūq, al-'Ayni became the muhtasib of Cairo, displacing the scholar al-Maqrīzī
Al-Maqrizi
Taqi al-Din Ahmad ibn 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Qadir ibn Muhammad al-Maqrizi ; Arabic: , was an Egyptian historian more commonly known as al-Maqrizi or Makrizi...
. 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. In any case, this was the beginning of a lifelong feud between the two 'ulama'
Ulema
Ulama , also spelt ulema, refers to the educated class of Muslim legal scholars engaged in the several fields of Islamic studies. They are best known as the arbiters of shari‘a law...
: "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, 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 the 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 and explaining it in Turkish for the Sultan's benefit. The Sultan al-Ashraf Barsbāy
Barsbay
Al-Ashraf Sayf-ad-Din Barsbay was the ninth Burji Mamluk sultan of Egypt from AD 1422 to 1438. He was Circassian by birth and a former slave of the first Burji Sultan, Barquq....
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.
Barsbāy often turned to al-'Ayni for advice on legal matters, and named him chief Hanafi
Hanafi
The Hanafi school is one of the four Madhhab in jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. The Hanafi madhhab is named after the Persian scholar Abu Hanifa an-Nu‘man ibn Thābit , a Tabi‘i whose legal views were preserved primarily by his two most important disciples, Abu Yusuf and Muhammad al-Shaybani...
qadi
Qadi
Qadi is a judge ruling in accordance with Islamic religious law appointed by the ruler of a Muslim country. Because Islam makes no distinction between religious and secular domains, qadis traditionally have jurisdiction over all legal matters involving Muslims...
(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
Shafi'i
The Shafi'i madhhab is one of the schools of fiqh, or religious law, within the Sunni branch of Islam. The Shafi'i school of fiqh is named after Imām ash-Shafi'i.-Principles:...
qadi, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
Al-Haafidh Shihabuddin Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad, better known as Ibn Hajar due to the fame of his forefathers, al-Asqalani due to his family origin , was a medieval Shafiite Sunni scholar of Islam who represents the entire realm of the Sunni world in the field of Hadith...
, 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. 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
- 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
- ar-Rad al-Waafir
- Nukhab al-Afkar fi Tahqiq Mabani al-Akhbar fi Sharh Ma`ani al-Aathar