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Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya
1292 CE–1350 CE · Cairo
Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (691–751 AH / 1292–1350 CE) was a Sunni scholar of the Hanbali school in Mamluk Damascus, best known as the foremost student, companion, and intellectual heir of Ibn Taymiyya. His epithet "Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya" ("son of the steward of the Jawziyya") derives from his father's post as superintendent (qayyim) of the al-Jawziyya madrasa. A prolific writer on theology, law, Quranic exegesis, and spiritual cultivation, he is remembered for works such as Zad al-Maad, a treatise on the conduct (sunna) of the Prophet, and al-Wabil al-Sayyib on supplication and remembrance of God; his thought, like that of his teacher, remains influential in later Salafi and reformist currents.
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CairoקהירEgypt
We know they were here, but the specifics of what they did at this stop aren’t recorded yet in our corpus.
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
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Sages whose lives overlapped with Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
Across the traditions
The world in their lifetime
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Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.