al-Sakhawi
1428 CE–1497 CE · Cairo
Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sakhawi (831/1428 – 902/1497) was a Sunni scholar of the Shafi'i legal school (madhhab) who became one of the most important hadith specialists and biographer-historians of the late Mamluk period. His family name points to the Egyptian Nile-Delta village of Sakha, but he was born and raised in Cairo, then a leading centre of Islamic learning.
He is remembered above all as the foremost student of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, the era's pre-eminent master of hadith (reports of the sayings and deeds of the Prophet Muhammad and their transmission). Working in that tradition, al-Sakhawi wrote Fath al-Mughith, a widely-used commentary on the science of evaluating hadith chains, and al-Daw' al-Lami' li-ahl al-qarn al-tasi', a vast biographical dictionary of notable people of the ninth Islamic century. Its final volume gathers more than a thousand entries on women, many of whom he knew personally — a much-cited source for social historians. In al-I'lan bi'l-tawbikh he defended the discipline of history itself against its critics.
Like many scholars of his day, al-Sakhawi performed the hajj and made repeated study-journeys to the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, collecting hadith from local transmitters; later sources also credit him with travel to other towns. He settled in Medina in his final years and died there in 902/1497.
Life journeyclick any stop, or use ←/→Trace on the map →
CairoקהירEgypt
What they did here
Born in Cairo (831 AH) into a family tracing to the Delta village of Sakha; raised and educated in the city. There he became the leading student of the hadith master Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852/1449) and built his career as muhaddith, jurist and historian, composing his major works including al-Daw' al-Lami'.
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 al-Sakhawi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with al-Sakhawi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.