Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi

Shihāb al-Dīn Abu ’l-Abbās Aḥmad ibn Abi ’l-ʿAlāʾ Idrīs ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yallīn al-Ṣanhājī al-Ṣaʿīdī al-Bahfashīmī al-Būshī al-Bahnasī al-Miṣrī al-Mālikī (Arabic: شهاب الدين القرافي) (also known as simply known as Shihāb al-Dīn al-Qarāfī or al-Qarāfī, 1228–1285), was a Sunni Islamic scholar of Sanhaja Berber origin who lived in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt. He is widely regarded as the foremost Maliki juristconsult and legal theoretician of his time.^[2] He was highly proficient in scriptural exegesis, Islamic theology, grammar, lexicography, literature, ophthalmology, astronomy and mathematics.^[3] During his lifetime, al-Qarafi was hailed as one of the greatest scholars.^[4] He is considered to be one of the prominent influential thinkers and pioneers. According to Ibn Farhun, Shafi'ites and Malikites were unanimous that the best scholars in Egypt were three in number: al-Qarafi in Old Cairo, Ibn al-Munayyir in Alexandria, and Ibn Daqiq al-'Id in Fatimid Cairo. Imam al-Suyuti counted him among the scholars who attained the rank of mujtahid mutlaq [ar] (absolute/autonomous ijtihad).^[5]