Molla 'Ala' al-Din 'Ali al-'Arabi

Mulla Ala al-Din Ali al-Arabi came originally from the region of Aleppo, where he studied with its scholars. He then went to Anatolia and studied with Mulla al-Kurani. It is reported that al-Kurani once told him: "To me you are like al-Sharif al-Sayyid to Mubarak Shah the logician." He then entered the service of Mulla Khidr Beg ibn Jalal al-Din and gained a great deal of learning from him ².

He became a repeater of lessons at the Dar al-Hadith madrasa in Edirne, where he wrote glosses on the commentary on the Creed. He then moved between madrasas until he took charge of one in the town of Magnesia. He devoted himself intensely to learning and also took up the Sufi path, combining the authority of knowledge and of practice. He used to retreat into seclusion for forty days at a time. It is told that in the summer he lived on a hill there. A woman servant of the imam of a village visited him, and he told her: "I smell impurity on you." The imam searched his clothes and found nothing. When he sat down, a booklet fell from his lap, the spiritual notes of Shaykh Badr al-Din ibn Qadi Samawna. Mulla Ala al-Din read it, found in it views that contradict the consensus, and said: "The wind that carried this booklet was the cause of it." He ordered it burned ¹.

He then became mufti in Constantinople until he died there in the year 901. He was a learned and eminent scholar, known for his long commentary on the Qur'an, with a long beard and a very strong constitution. In winter he would sit for lessons with his head uncovered. He had a heartfelt remembrance of God that could be heard from afar, so that the sound of his heart drowned out his voice. He wrote glosses on the four introductions and was the first to write glosses on them ³.