Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī

Abū Ṭāhir al-Silafī (born Isfahan in 472 AH/1079 CE; died Alexandria in 576/1180), was a leading scholar and teacher in sixth/twelfth-century Egypt. Among his many works is the Mu‘jam al-safar (the Dictionary of Travel), a biographical dictionary: 'covering from 511/1117 to 560/1164, the Mu‘jam can be regarded as a digest of intellectual life in late Fāṭimī Alexandria'. Al-Silafī ran the second madrasa to be built in Egypt (and the first Shāfi‘ī one there), built in Alexandria in 544/1149 on the order of Alexandria's then governor Shāfi‘ī al-‘Ādil b. Salār, vizier to Caliph al-Ẓāfir. It was named ‘Ādiliyya after its founder, but became popularly known as al-Silafiyya after its leading teacher. Probably in 512/1118, al-Silafī married Sitt al-Ahl bint al-Khalwānī; their daughter Khadīja (d. 623/1226) married the scholar Abu’l-Ḥarām Makkī b. ‘Abd al-Raḥmān al-Ṭrabulsī, whose son, Abu’l-Qāsim ‘Abd al-Raḥmān (born 570/1174), also became an important scholar in Alexandria.

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