Taj al-Din al-Firkah, jurist of Syria

تاج الدين الفركاح فقيه الشام

c. February 1227 CE · Rabi' I 624 AH – c. June 1291 CE · 5 Jumada II 690 AH

Damascus

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 1.

Depth

At a glance

Roles
Jurist · Scholar · teacher
Era
The Mongol and Post-Mongol Era
Region
Levant & Iraq
Review
Draft Completeness 1/5 · Help complete it

Life in time

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

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.

    Overview

    Taj al-Din al-Firkah, jurist of Syria and shaykh al-Islam; he read fiqh under Ibn al-Salah and Ibn 'Abd al-Salam, sat to teach at twenty-odd and was writing on fatwas at thirty — fatwas reached him from every quarter, and most of the qadis of Syria and its environs were his pupils. 1

    His rank

    Al-Dhahabi said: "the headship of the madhhab in the world ended with him, and he was of those who reached the rank of ijtihad"; Ibn Qadi Shuhba said he was "more juristically profound and of purer talent than al-Nawawi, with more memorised than he" — and between him and al-Nawawi there was estrangement. He taught at the Badara'iyya and was buried in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery. 1

    Connections

    Explore the connections

    Studied under
    Ibn al-Salah· الشيخ عز الدين بن عبد السلام
    Died in
    Damascus

    People and things also explored

    al-Kamal Salar al-Irbili· Shams al-Din Ibn Nuh· Sharaf al-Din ibn Ni'ma, khatib of khatibs· 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

    Sources

    1. Shadharat al-Dhahab — Ibn al-Imad al-Hanbali , p. 722-724
    Cite this page

    islam.museum contributors. “Taj al-Din al-Firkah, jurist of Syria”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/taj-al-din-al-firkah/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-10-21.

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    People

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    Related

    al-Kamal Salar al-Irbili

    Mufti of Syria — Ibn al-Salah's senior pupil ('shaykh of the ashab'), al-Nawawi among those who profited from him; perpetual mu'id of the Badra'iyya, abridger of al-Ruyani's al-Bahr; 'the fatwa of Syria turned on him'.