Al-Sakhawi

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn `Abd al-Rahman al-Sakhawi (Arabic: شمس الدين محمد بن عبدالرحمن السخاوي‎‎, 1428/831 AH - 1497/902 AH) was a reputable Shafi'i Muslim hadith scholar and historian who was born in Cairo. "Al-Sakhawi" refers to the village of Sakha in Egypt, where his relatives belonged. He was a prolific writer that excelled in the knowledge of hadith, tafsir, literature, and history. His work was also anthropological. For example in Egypt he recorded the marital history of 500 women, the largest sample on marriage in the Middle Ages, and found that at least a third of all women in the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt and Syria married more than once, with many marrying three or more times. According to Al-Sakhawi, as many as three out of ten marriages in 15th century Cairo ended in divorce. His proficience in hadith has its influences trace back heavily on his Shaykh Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. He died in Medina.