Al-Sakhawi

Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi
TitleAl-Hafiz, Shams al-Din
Personal
Born1428 CE (831 AH)
Cairo, Egypt
Died1497 CE (902 AH)
Medina
ReligionIslam
RegionMiddle Eastern Scholar
JurisprudenceShafi‘i
CreedAsh'ari[1]
Main interest(s)Hadith, History
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Sakhāwī (Arabic: شمس الدين محمد بن عبدالرحمن السخاوي, 1428/831 AH – 1497/902 AH) was a reputable Shafi‘i Muslim hadith scholar and historian who was born in Cairo. Al-Sakhawi refers to the village of Sakha in Egypt, where his relatives belonged. He was a prolific writer that excelled in the knowledge of hadith, tafsir, literature, and history. His work was also anthropological. For example, in Egypt he recorded the marital history of 500 women, the largest sample on marriage in the Middle Ages, and found that at least a third of all women in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and the Bilad al-Sham married more than once, with many marrying three or more times. According to al-Sakhawi, as many as three out of ten marriages in 15th century Cairo ended in divorce.[3] His proficiency in hadith has its influences trace back heavily on his Shaykh al-Hafiz, ibn Hajar al-`Asqalani. He died in Medina.

  1. ^ "Ahl al-Sunna: The Ash'aris - The Testimony and Proofs of the Scholars". almostaneer.com.
  2. ^ Salmān, Mashhūr Ḥasan Maḥmūd & Shuqayrāt, Aḥmad Ṣidqī (1998). "Tarjamat al-musannif". Muʼallafāt al-Sakhāwī : al-ʻAllāmah al-Ḥāfiẓ Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd al-Raḥmān al-Sakhāwī, 831–902 H. Dār Ibn Ḥazm. p. 18.
  3. ^ Rapoport, Yossef (2005). Marriage, Money and Divorce in Medieval Islamic Society. Cambridge University Press. pp. 5–6. ISBN 0-521-84715-X.