Al-Burini

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Badr al-Din al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Dimashqi al-Saffuri al-Burini (July 1556-11 June 1615), commonly known as al-Hasan al-Burini, was a Damascus-based Ottoman Arab historian and poet and Shafi'i jurist.

Contents

Life

Al-Burini was born in mid-July 1556 in the village of Saffuriya near Nazareth in the Galilee, hence his nisba (epithet) "al-Saffuri". [1] His father Muhammad was originally from the village of Burin near Nablus hence the nisba "al-Burini". [2] At the age of 10 he moved to Damascus with his father. [1]

Al-Burini learned the Qur'an at the Manjak Mosque in the Midan neighborhood in his adolescence. [2] Afterward, he received an education in Arabic grammar, qanun (secular law) and arithmetic from Damascene ulema (religious scholars) at the Madrasa al-Umariyya in the Salihiyya neighborhood. [2] His studies there were interrupted by a famine, which prompted him to relocate to Jerusalem from 1567 to 1571. [1] In Jerusalem he was taught by Muhammad ibn Abi al-Lutf. [2] He moved back to Damascus in 1571, settling in the Sufi lodge of Samisatiyya where he expanded his education to literature, fiqh (jurisprudence), tafsir (Qur'anic interpretations), and hadith. [3] By 1580 he had mastered Persian, as taught to him by Persian author Hafiz Husayn al-Karbala'i (d. 1588) in Aleppo or Damascus. [4] Later in life, he also learned Turkish. [5]

After completing his studies, al-Burini became the head of the Shafi'i fiqh in the Umayyad Mosque in 1580. About the same time he began making sermons at the Sultan Mosque and became a lecturer in a number of Damascus madrasas. He was known by his students for his eloquence, charisma and literary knowledge, while the historians and religious scholars of the period lauded al-Burini for the same qualities, as well as his interest in history and philology. The governors and judges of Damascus trusted and appreciated al-Burini, considering him an accomplished Shafi’i jurist with independent judgements. [4] He served as the kadi (Islamic head judge) of the Ottoman Hajj pilgrimage caravan from Damascus to Mecca in 1611. [1] On 11 June 1615 he died in Damascus and was buried in the cemetery of Bab al-Faradis. [1] [5]

Literary works

One of al-Burini's main bodies of work was Tarajim al-A'yan min Abna al-Zaman, a collection of 205 biographies of notable contemporary scholars, rulers and artisans, completed in 1614 after ten years. [5] Fadl Allah ibn Muhibb Allah edited and published the work in 1667 with a supplement. [1] The work was republished in Damascus in 1959. [5]

Al-Burini often traveled to different parts of Syria, penning two works about his trips to Tripoli in 1599/1600 and Aleppo in al-Rihlat al-Tarabulusiyya and al-Rihlat al-Halabiyya, respectively. [4] During his visits to Tripoli and its Akkar countryside he was hosted by the chieftain and governor Yusuf Sayfa Pasha. [6]

His poetry is mostly found in a diwan located in Istanbul. His epistle to As'ad ibn Muiin al-Din al-Tibrizi al-Dimashqi is located in Gotha, his Marathi poems for the Sufi Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Barakat al-Qadiri is preserved in Berlin and number of his poems are held in the British Museum in London. [1]

He penned a commentary on the diwan of Ibn al-Farid in 1591 and a commentary on the latter's al-Ta’iyya al-Sughra in 1593. [5]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Brockelmann 1960, p. 1333.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mullazadih 2013, p. 45.
  3. Mullazadih 2013, pp. 45–46.
  4. 1 2 3 Mullazadih 2013, p. 46.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Mullazadih 2013, p. 47.
  6. Abu-Husayn 1985, p. 62.

Bibliography

Further reading