Al-Sharif al-Jurjani

Al-Sharif al-Jurjani
Manuscript of Jurjani's Sharh Tadkira (a commentary on Nasir al-Din Tusi's Kitab al-tadhkira, on astronomy). Copy created in Timurid Iran, dated 1410. This particular copy is the oldest extant version of the work and was created during Jurjani's lifetime
Personal
Born1339 CE
Ṭāḡu near Astarabad in Gorgān[1]
Died1414 CE
Shiraz
ReligionIslam
Eraearly Timurid period[1]
RegionShiraz
DenominationSunni
JurisprudenceHanafi
CreedAsh'ari
Main interest(s)Kalam((arabic grammar)) (Islamic theology), Mantiq (logic), Falkiat
Notable work(s)Jurjani Definitions, Sharh al-Mawaqif
Muslim leader
Influenced by
Influenced

Ali ibn Mohammed al-Jurjani (1339–1414) (Persian علی بن محمد جرجانی) was a Persian[4] encyclopedic writer, scientist, and traditionalist theologian. He is referred to as "al-Sayyid al-Sharif" in sources due to his alleged descent from Ali ibn Abi Taleb.[1] He was born in the village of Ṭāḡu near Astarabad in Gorgan (hence the nisba "Jurjani"),[1] and became a professor in Shiraz. When this city was plundered by Timur in 1387, he moved to Samarkand, but returned to Shiraz in 1405, and remained there until his death.[5]

The author of more than fifty books,[6] of his thirty-one extant works, many being commentaries on other works, one of the best known is the Taʿrīfāt (تعريفات "Definitions"),[7] which was edited by G Flügel (Leipzig, 1845), published also in Constantinople (1837), Cairo (1866, etc.), and St Petersburg (1897).[5]

  1. ^ a b c d van Ess, Josef (2009). "JORJĀNI, ZAYN-AL-DIN ABU'L-ḤASAN ʿALI". Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. XV, Fasc. 1. pp. 21–29.
  2. ^ Gündüz, Şinasi, and Cafer S. Yaran, eds. Change and Essence: dialectical relations between change and continuity in the Turkish intellectual tradition. Vol. 18. CRVP, 2005.
  3. ^ Ragep, F. Jamil, and Alī al-Qūshjī. "Freeing Astronomy from Philosophy: An Aspect of Islamic Influence on Science." Osiris 16 (2001): 49-71.
  4. ^ Donzel, E. J. van (1 January 1994). Islamic Desk Reference. BRILL. p. 192. ISBN 90-04-09738-4. al-Jurjani, Ali* b. Muhammad (al-Sayyid al-Sharif): Persian grammarian, philosopher and linguist; 1339-1413.
  5. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Thatcher, Griffithes Wheeler (1911). "Jurjānī s.v. ʽAlī ibn Maḥommed ul-Jurjānī". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 587.
  6. ^ Kifayat Ullah, Al-Kashshaf: Al-Zamakhshari's Mu'tazilite Exegesis of the Qur'an, Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG (2017), p. 40
  7. ^ Kitâb Ta`rîfat al-`ulûm wa tahqîqât r-rusûm, Edition critique: Abdelmoula HAGIL, Paris, 2019, 536p.