Shams al-Din Ibn Nasir al-Din al-Dimashqi

The hafiz of Damascus, Shams al-Din Ibn Nasir al-Din al-Qaysi, a Shafiʿi, though it is also said he was a Hanbali. He was born in the middle of Muharram 777 AH in Damascus. He memorised the Qur'an and several standard texts, and as a child he heard hadith from the hafiz Abu Bakr Ibn al-Muhibb. He recited the transmitted readings to al-Jamal al-Banyasi, then devoted himself to the pursuit of hadith, attended the shaykhs and copied the registers of transmitters. He heard from a great number of people, among them Badr al-Din Ibn Razzam, Ibn Ghashm al-Mardawi, Ibn al-ʿIzz and Burhan al-Din Ibn ʿAbd al-Hadi. Al-Sakhawi reports that he read to Ibn Hajar and Ibn Hajar read to him. He excelled in hadith, wrote much, and produced collections, and knew high and low chains of transmission. He transmitted for himself and for others, and became the hafiz of Syria without rival. He took Arabic from al-Banyasi and others, jurisprudence from Ibn Khatib al-Dahsha and al-Siraj al-Bulqini, and he was given licences from Cairo by al-Hafiz al-Zayn al-ʿIraqi, Siraj Ibn al-Mulaqqin and others. His name became famous and his reputation spread.

He wrote major works, among them "Tawdih al-Mushtabih al-Dhahab" in three large volumes, an abridgement called "al-Aʿlam" that collects the errors in al-Dhahabi's "Mushtabih," the verse work "Badiʿat al-Bayan" on the deaths of notables with a commentary, a poem on the sciences of hadith with a long and a short commentary, "al-Shariq min al-Duʿafaʾ," and "Kashf al-Qiniʿ" on those who falsely claim companionship. He also wrote works on the Prophet ﷺ's birthday, on ascension, on the Prophet's death, and on the Sahih of al-Bukhari, among many others. He died in Damascus on the night of Friday, the sixteenth of Rabiʿ II 842 AH, and was buried in the cemetery of Bab al-Faradis ¹.