Sharaf al-Din ibn Ni'ma, khatib of khatibs

شرف الدين ابن نعمة خطيب الخطباء

c. 1225 CE · 622 AH – c. July 1295 CE · Ramadan 694 AH

Damascus

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Jurist · Scholar · Poet
Era
The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
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Life in time

1175120012251250127513001325 c. c. c. c.
The Crusades, Ayyubids and Mamluks · The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era Contemporaries: Ahmad ibn Muhsin al-Ba'labakki · Al-Abraqawhi, Ahmad ibn Ishaq · al-Busiri, author of the Burda · al-Dimyati · al-Faruthi, shaykh of Iraq

In space

Damascus

Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph

Place in the story

    sunni-shafii (transmitted)

    Roles are dated and sourced; the museum describes the act and attributes the judgement.

    Summary

    Sharaf ibn Ni'ma, khatib and mufti of Damascus and shaykh of its Shafi'is, heard from al-Sakhawi and Ibn al-Salah and studied fiqh under Ibn 'Abd al-Salam, excelling in fiqh, usul and Arabic. He deputized in the judgeship for a time, taught at the Shamiyya and Ghazaliyya, wrote an unmatched proportioned script and authored a book on usul. He was among the ornaments of the age, with famous riddles — among them his riddle on the noria. 1

    Connections

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    Studied under
    الشيخ عز الدين بن عبد السلام
    Died in
    Damascus

    People and things also explored

    Taj al-Din al-Firkah, jurist of Syria· the Cave of Qasyun (Jibril's Cave)· Qasr Hiraql / Qasr Shams al-Muluk· The Umayyad Mosque of Damascus· The Fitna of the Hafiz Abd al-Ghani in Damascus in 595· al-Afdal besieges Damascus and turns back· al-Adil's seizure of Damascus· al-Ghazali's arrival in Damascus as an ascetic, in 488

    Sources

    1. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 742
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Sharaf al-Din ibn Ni'ma, khatib of khatibs”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/sharaf-ibn-nima-khatib/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-22.

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    People

    Prophets, companions, scholars, rulers, scientists, poets, travelers: women and men who shaped the story.
    Related

    Taj al-Din al-Firkah, jurist of Syria

    Syria's chief jurist — teaching at twenty-odd, writing responsa at thirty, fatwas arriving from every quarter and most of Syria's qadis his pupils; al-Dhahabi: 'the headship of the madhhab worldwide ended with him, a rank-of-ijtihad man'; Ibn Qadi Shuhba rated him subtler and better-stored than al-Nawawi.