Qāḍī al-Qudāt ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Qunawī

ʿAlāʾ al-Dīn al-Qunawī Abū'l-Ḥasan, ʿAlī b. Ismāʿīl b. Yūsuf al-Qunawī al-Tabrīzī al-Shāfiʿī. He was born in Konya around the year 668 AH. He studied knowledge there. In 693 AH, he came to Dimashq. He was among the virtuous people. He engaged mostly in knowledge. He listened to ḥadīth. He established a circle of lessons at the Umayyad Mosque for the purpose of teaching knowledge. He taught at the Ikbāliyya Madrasa. Later, he emigrated to Egypt. There, he also taught at many great madrasas. In Egypt and Dimashq, he served as shaykh al-shuyūkh (chief shaykh). Until he came to Dimashq as a qāḍī (judge) in 727 AH, he continued teaching knowledge and benefiting students there. He had works of classification concerning fiqh and other sciences. He possessed much knowledge of ṣarf (morphology), nahw (syntax), fiqh, kalām (theology), uṣūl al-fiqh (principles of jurisprudence), and fiqh. He had thoroughly studied Zamakhsharī's work al-Kashshāf and had elucidated the meanings of the ḥadīths. He was a person of good qualities and fairness. He was very respectful toward the people of knowledge. He prepared a book about the ḥadīths he narrated to us and about the shaykhs of ḥadīth who transmitted to him. Our shaykh behaved very humbly toward al-Mizzī. This year, on the fourteenth of Dhū al-Qaʿda, Saturday, after ʿaṣr prayer, he passed away while in his garden. The next day, the funeral prayer was performed, and he was buried in the Qasyūn Cemetery. May Allah forgive him.