Shams al-Din Ibn Zuhayr al-Ramli

Shams al-Din Ahmad ibn Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Zuhayr ibn Khalil al-Ramli, later of Damascus, a Shafii. He was born in Ramla in Rabi al-Awwal of the year 854 and grew up there. He was formerly known as Ibn al-Halawi. He moved to Damascus, memorised the Minhaj, the Alfiyya on grammar, hadith, the two Shatibiyyas and the Durra on the three readings. He read the Qur'an before several shaykhs and studied with Ibn Nayhan, Ibn Iraq, Abu Zur'a al-Maqdisi, Ibn Imran, al-Tibi, al-Zayn al-Haytami, al-Muhibb ibn al-Shihna, Ibn al-Hayim, Ja'far al-Sanhuri and others. He heard hadith from al-Jamal Abd Allah ibn Jama'a, preacher of al-Aqsa mosque, including a chain of hadith transmitted by the first of its kind ¹.

He acted as deputy judge in Damascus, and his conduct there was good. He was appointed head of Quranic recitation at the Umayyad mosque, at the Ashrafiyya house of hadith, at the Ashrafiyya tomb, and at the tomb of Umm al-Salih after al-Biqai. Leadership of Quranic recitation in Damascus came to rest with him ¹.

He died on Saturday, the tenth of Dhu al-Hijja in the year 923 and was buried in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery ¹.