Died AH 771 Religion Islam Ethnicity Arab Jurisprudence Shafi'i | Era Medieval era Name Taj al-Subki Region Arab World | |
Born AH 727/728 Egypt | ||
Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī was a leading Islamic scholar during the Mamluk era. He was an expert on hadith and fiqh (jurisprudence) as well as a historian.
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Biography
Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī was born in Cairo in 727/1327 or 728/1328. He was first educated by his father, the celebrated scholar Taqi al-Din al-Subki. When he was 11 years old he moved with his family to Damascus and it was principally in the Syrian capital that al-Subkī received his education. Here he studied under some of the leading scholars of his day such as the historian Dhahabi and the jurist Ibn al-Naqīb.
At the age of 18, he started teaching and in his late twenties he began to assist his father as chief judge of Damascus. Soon after, he was formally authorised to take his father's position and for the rest of his life, he served as chief judge in the Syrian capital. He also held positions as Professor, Mufti, and Qadi, in Damascus and Cairo, where he was Khatib of the Umayyad Mosque.
He died in 771/1370 at 44 years of age.
Works
Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī's most celebrated work in the eyes of both Muslim and Western scholars is his great biographical dictionary of Shafi'i scholars, the Tabaqat al-shafi'iyya.
Another famous work of Tāj al-Dīn al-Subkī is his Mu'id al-nicam wa-mubid al-nikam which treats 113 trades, professions and offices of the author's own time, in the light of how their exponents should behave in order to recover God's favour.