Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi
1325 CE–1404 CE · Cairo
Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi (full name Abd al-Rahim ibn al-Husayn al-Iraqi, 725-806 AH / 1325-1404 CE) was a leading Sunni scholar of hadith (the reports of the Prophet Muhammad's words and deeds) of the Shafi'i legal school, active in Mamluk Cairo. Biographers report that he was born in Cairo to a father of Kurdish origin from the Rāznān region near Erbil; the family nisba "al-Iraqi" preserves that geographic origin. (One brief source instead says he was "born in Iraq" — most detailed biographies place his birth in Cairo.) Orphaned of his father at age three, he memorized the Qur'an young and, on the advice of his teacher Ibn Jama'a, turned decisively to hadith.
He is remembered as among the foremost hadith authorities of his age. His best-known works are an Alfiyya — a didactic poem of roughly a thousand rajaz verses on hadith terminology, building on Ibn al-Salah's earlier manual — and al-Mughni, a study identifying and grading the hadiths cited in al-Ghazali's Ihya' Ulum al-Din. He undertook scholarly journeys (riḥla) through Syria and the Hijaz, and reportedly served for several years as judge, prayer-leader and preacher at the Prophet's Mosque in Medina before returning to Cairo. There he revived the long-lapsed tradition of public hadith dictation sessions (imlāʾ). His students included the celebrated commentator Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani — said to have studied with him for a decade — and Nur al-Din al-Haythami. He died in Cairo.
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CairoקהירEgypt
What they did here
Born in Cairo on 21 Jumada al-Awwal 725 AH (5 May 1325 CE), per his biographers, to a father of Kurdish origin (from Rāznān near Erbil) and an Egyptian mother. He was raised, educated and built his scholarly career here, teaching hadith at several Cairo madrasas and reviving the public dictation (imlāʾ) sessions. A minority source says he was 'born in Iraq'; most detailed biographies place his birth in Cairo.
Cairo in this era
Under the Mamluk sultans (1250-1517) Cairo was the largest city of the Islamic world west of Persia and, after the fall of Baghdad in 1258, the seat of a line of Abbasid caliphs in name. Its many madrasas, mosques and Sufi lodges drew scholars of hadith, law and mysticism, among them Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and Ibn Ata Allah.
About Cairo
Cairo, at the head of the Nile delta, grew from two foundations: Fustat, the garrison town built by the Arab conquerors in 641, and al-Qahira ('the Victorious'), the walled city founded by the Fatimid dynasty in 969, where the mosque of al-Azhar opened in 970-72 and became a great centre of learning. Under the Ayyubids (from 1171) and the Mamluks (1250-1517) it was one of the largest cities of the Islamic world. Fustat's Jewish community, home to Maimonides in the 12th century, left the Cairo Geniza, a vast store of medieval documents. Later ruled by the Ottomans and, from 1882, under British occupation, Cairo is the capital of modern Egypt.
Across the traditions, in Cairo at the same time
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
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Works
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