Shams al-Din al-Nuwaji

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Hasan al-Nawaji, a Shafiʿi scholar, imam, polymath and man of letters from Cairo. He was born in Cairo around 785 AH. He memorised "al-ʿUmda," "al-Tanbih," "al-Shatibiyya" and "al-Alfiyya." He studied jurisprudence with al-Barmawi and al-Bayjuri, grammar and the rational sciences with Izz Ibn Jamaʿa, al-Basati and Ibn Hisham al-ʿAjami, and he performed the pilgrimage twice. He studied the sciences of literature so deeply that he surpassed the scholars of his age. Whatever fine poetic idea he sought, it obeyed him and gave him its gifts. He gave his full attention to the discipline until he won first place among the highest ranks.

His works include a gloss on al-Tawdih in one volume, a book titled "Tahil al-Gharib" on long poems that are all love poetry, and "al-Shaqa'iq," "Khal al-ʿIdhar," "Mahafif al-Hasanat," "Rawdat al-Majalis," "Mara'i al-Ghizlan" and "Hilyat al-Kumayt" in description of wine. He had first named one work "The Joy and Happiness in Describing the Embers," which brought him a great ordeal. He consulted a jurist and changed the title. Ibn al-ʿImad mentions that he had good things and others of the opposite kind, but does not mention any of them.

He died in 859 AH ¹.