Jalaluddin Al-Suyuti

In Egypt, during the reign of the Mamluk Sultans of all those heroes and scholars of Islam who emerged, the historian, Jalaluddin As-Suyuti, is the most famous.
Undoubtedly, he was one of the greatest scholars and thinkers of the fifteenth Century.

As-Suyuti's full name was Abu'l Fadl Abd al-Rahman ibn Kamal al-Din Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Sabiq al-Din, Jalal al-Din al-Misri al-Suyuti al-Shafi'. He was born in upper Egypt, on the night of Saturday 1st Rajab in 849 A.H. (3rd October 1445 A.D.) in a place called Asyut from which he took his surname of as-Suyuti. He lost his father early in life, but he was left financially independent and so he faced no difficulty in pursuing his studies.


Born to a Turkish mother, and a non-Arab father, he was raised as an orphan in Cairo. His memory was very retentive. At the age of eight, he became a hafiz of the Qur'an. His mother, being a very intelligent lady, arranged for his education with all the best contemporary scholars. He learnt tafsir, hadith, fiqh, 'ilm al-Kalam, history, philosophy, philology and rhetoric under them.
He completed works of Sacred Law, fundamentals of jurisprudence, and Arabic grammar; after which he devoted himself to studying the Sacred Sciences under about a hundred and fifty shaykhs.
Among them the foremost Shafi' and Hanafi jurisprudence shaykhs at the time, such as the hadith master and Shaykh al-Islam Siraj al-Din Bulqini, with whom he studied Shafi' jurisprudence until his death; the hadith scholar Shaykh al-Islam Sharaf al-Din al-Munawi, with whom he read Qur'anic exegesis and who commented al-Suyuti's al-Jami' al-Saghir in a book entitled 'Fayd al-Qadir'; Taqi al-Din al-Shamani in hadith and the sciences of Arabic; the specialist in the principles of the law Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli, together with whom he compiled the most widespread condensed commentary of Qur'an in our time, 'Tafsir al-Jalalayn'; also studied under Burhan al-Din al-Biqa'i; Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi.
He also studied under the the Hanafi shaykhs Taqi al-Din al-Shamni, Shihab al-Din al-Sharmisahi, Mohyu al-Din al-Kafayji, and the hadith master Sayf al-Din Qasim ibn Qatlubaghah.

As-Suyuti travelled in the pursuit of knowledge to Damascus, the Hijaz, Yemen, India, Morocco, the lands south of Morocco, as well as to centers of learning in Egypt such as Mahalla, Dumyat, and Fayyum.


After having finished his studies, Suyuti went to the University of Cairo and became a professor of several subjects, one after another. Since he was well schooled in almost all the subjects, he soon became the head of the professors.

In 1501 his opponents conspired to implicate him in the misappropriation of university funds and he resigned out of regret.

He then devoted the rest of his life to studies and writings and to the worship of Allah (awj). He retired into scholarly seclusion, never to go back to teaching.
He selected a lonely place on the island of Rawda in the Nile, and dedicated himself to writing his celebrated books, and here he died after four years, at the age of sixty-two, on Thurday 18th Jumada al-Ula 911 A.H. (17th October 1505 C.E.).
He was buried in Hawsh Qawsun in Cairo, Egypt.


Wealthy Muslims and princes would visit him with offers of money and gifts, but he put all of them off, and when the sultan requested his presence a number of times, he refused. He once said to the sultan's envoy: "Do not ever come back to us with a gift, for in truth Allah has put an end to all such needs for us."

Ibn Iyas in Tarikh Misr states that when al-Suyuti reached forty years of age, he abandoned the company of men for the solitude of the Garden of al-Miqyas by the side of the Nile, avoiding his former colleagues as though he had never known them.


Jalaluddin was a great genius and a great scholar. He continued throughout his life to write extensively on the Qur'an, hadith, Shari'ah, History, philosophy, rhetoric, etc, and contributed a great deal to the world of knowledge. He authored works in virtually every Islamic science. It is said that his books number nearly six hundred.
The editors of the 'Dalil Makhtutat al-Suyuti' (Guide to al-Suyuti's Manuscripts) have listed 723 works to al-Suyuti's name.


  As-Suyuti concentrated on the demands of his readers. He had the capacity to write books on subjects which would attract the reader and he is famous throughout the Muslim world for writing excellent and attractive books.
His books continue to be read with interest in Egypt, Morocco, Syria and even in the Indian sub-continent. It is undoubtedly true that it was he who presented Muslim history and culture to his readers in a scientific was and in an accessible, enjoyable manner.

In this way, his contribution to the Muslim reading public throughout the world has been tremendous and most effective.

His most popular and acclaimed books are the ten volume hadith works, 'Jami al-Jawami' (The Collection of Collections), Al-itiqan fi 'ulum al-Qur'an' (Precision and Mastery in the Sciences of the Qur'an), 'Tafsir al-Jalalayn' (Commentary of the Two Jalals), written partly by Jalaluddin Al-Mahalli, and the rest by himself, 'Manhaj al-sawi wa al-manhal al-rawi fi al-tibb al-nabawi' (The straight path and quenching spring: the medicine of the Prophet (salAllahu alayhi wasalam)), 'Manaqib al-khulafa' (Virtues of the well-guided Caliphs), 'Husn al-Muhadarah Misr wa'l Qahira' (), 'Tarikh al-Khulafah' (History of the Khalifahs), his classic commentary on the sciences of hadith 'Tadrib al-Rawi fi Sharh Taqrib al-Nawawi' (The Training of the Hadith Transmitter: An Exegesis of Nawawi's 'The Facilitation').

'Tafsir al-Jalalayn' (Commentary of the Two Jalals) is a very famous tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis), and it is very popular throughout the whole of the Islamic world. It is very simple and lucid and dependable.
The 'Misr wa'l Qahira' is a voluminous book on the history of Egypt, and is very popular among Egyptian readers.

All these books and writings indicate his unusual talent and foresight as a writer, as a reformer and as a keen observer. His wonderful and skilful writing, his faultless narration and his lucid language have endeared him to generations of readers, and for centuries it has been the great and enlightening as-Suyuti whose writings have inspired the Muslims.

Rahimahullahi 'alayi.