al-Sharif al-Jurjani

Ali ibn Muhammad al-Jurjani, widely called al-Sayyid al-Sharif ("the noble sayyid," reflecting a reported descent from the family of the Prophet), was one of the most influential scholars of theology (kalam), logic (mantiq) and philosophy in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Iran. He was born around 1340 (c. 740 AH) in a village near Astarabad in the Caspian region of Gurgan, the source of his nisba "al-Jurjani."

As a young man he traveled in search of teachers. Scholarly sources report that he reached Cairo around 1371 to study the religious, linguistic and rational sciences with the logician Mubarakshah, then returned eastward, by tradition passing through Constantinople. Around 1375 he settled in Shiraz, teaching at the court of the Muzaffarid ruler Shah Shuja, which became the center of his career.

When the conqueror Timur (Tamerlane) took Shiraz in 1387, al-Jurjani relocated to Samarkand, where tradition records famous scholarly debates before Timur with his great contemporary Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani. After Timur's death in 1405 he returned to Shiraz, where he taught until his death in 1413 (816 AH).

In law he is generally classed with the Hanafi school and in creed with the Ash'ari theologians, though his lasting fame rests on his learning rather than partisanship. His Ta'rifat ("Definitions") and his glosses and commentaries — above all Sharh al-Mawaqif — became standard textbooks in later Islamic and Ottoman education.