Badr al-Din al-Ayni

Badr al-Din Abu Muhammad Mahmud b. Ahmad al-'Ayni was born on 17 Ramadan 762 AH (21 July 1361) at 'Aynṭab, a place between Aleppo and Antioch. He came from a family of scholars (his father was a qadi) and began his studies young, first in his birthplace and then in Aleppo. At the age of 29 he visited Damascus, Jerusalem and Cairo. In Cairo he was initiated into the mystical doctrines of Sufism and for a time entered the dervish monastery of the Barquqiyya, which had recently been founded. ²

He settled finally in Cairo, where in 801/1398-9, under al-Malik al-Zahir, he was appointed muhtasib, the inspector of the markets. He was dismissed and reappointed several times, and in 803/1400-1 obtained the much envied post of inspector of pious foundations (nazir al-ahbas). When al-Malik al-Mu'ayyad Shaykh came to the throne in 815/1412 he was disgraced, but shortly afterwards he was back in favour and again muhtasib. His knowledge of Turkish made him acceptable to the sultans al-Mu'ayyad, al-Malik al-Zahir Tatar and al-Malik al-Ashraf Barsbay. He translated al-Quduri's legal treatise into Turkish for Tatar, and read his Arabic chronicle aloud in Turkish, translating as he went, to al-Ashraf in long and frequent audiences. He also composed panegyrics for his masters, among them a life of al-Mu'ayyad and a eulogy of al-Ashraf. ²

Appointed chief Hanafi qadi in 829/1425-6, he held the post for twelve consecutive years. In 846/1442-3 he combined the offices of muhtasib, inspector of pious foundations and chief Hanafi qadi, a unique achievement according to his biographers. He was also professor at the Mu'ayyadiyya madrasa. He lost favour in 853/1449-50 and died two years later, on 4 Dhu l-Hijja 855 (28 December 1451). He was buried in the 'Ayniyya madrasa he had founded, where another commentator on al-Bukhari, al-Kastallani, later also found his resting place. ¹

His life shows the relations of the scholarly class with the Mamluk sultans. He was in contact, though on bad terms, with two of the outstanding Muslim scholars of his period, al-Maqrizi and the Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Hajar al-'Asqalani. He succeeded al-Maqrizi as muhtasib, which earned him Maqrizi's hatred, and he carried on a sharp dispute with Ibn Hajar over his commentary on al-Bukhari's Sahih. His works are very numerous, mostly in Arabic and some in Turkish. The three best known are: his general history, 'Iqd al-Juman fi Tarikh Ahl al-Zaman; his commentary on the poetic examples in four commentaries on Ibn Malik's Alfiyya, al-Maqasid al-nahwiyya; and his great commentary on the Sahih of al-Bukhari, 'Umdat al-Qari li-sharh al-Bukhari, printed in Cairo in 1308 AH and in Istanbul in 1309-1310 AH. In the last, for each hadith he proceeds in order: the connexion between the hadith and the chapter heading; the isnad, its peculiarities and its authorities; the other works or chapters of the Sahih in which the hadith occurs; the literal sense; and the legal or ethical rules that can be drawn from it. ³

An earlier draft card gave his death as 1453. The Encyclopaedia's date, 4 Dhu l-Hijja 855 AH (28 December 1451), is the one kept here; the 1453 date is not checked against a primary account. ²