Qāḍī al-Qudāt Jamāleddīn al-Zarī

Abū Rabīʿ Sulaymān b. Ḥāṭib Majdüddīn ʿUmar b. Ṣālim b. ʿUmar b. ʿUthmān al-Azruʿī al-Shāfnī. He was born in the year 645 AH in the Maghrib region of Azruat. He studied knowledge in Dimashq. He served as a judge in Zar. For this reason, he took the name Zarī and was known by this name. Afterwards, he served as a deputy judge in Dimashq. Later, he was transferred to Miṣr, where he also served as deputy judge. After some time, he was appointed independently as a qāḍī (judge) and held this position for about one year. For about one year, he also served as shaykh al-shuyūkh (chief of the shuyūkh) concurrently with the qāḍīship of Sham. Later, he was dismissed from the qāḍīship. He continued the office of shaykh al-shuyūkh together with teaching at the Atabakiya Madrasa for about one more year. Afterwards, he emigrated to Miṣr, where he served as a mudarris (teacher) and qāḍī al-ʿaskar (military judge). He died on a Sunday, the sixth of Ṣafar, at the age of seventy. May Allah have mercy on him. Berzalī composed a risāla (treatise) about twenty shaykhs who transmitted ḥadīths from him while he was in Dimashq.