Ismail Ibn Kathir | |
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Born | c. 1300 / 701 H Bosra, Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo) now in Syria |
Died | 18 February 1373 / 774 H Damascus, Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo), now in Syria |
Era | Bahri Mamluk Sultanate |
Region | Sham |
Religion | Islam |
Denomination | Sunni |
Jurisprudence | Shafi'i |
Creed | Athari or Ash'ari |
Notable work(s) | - Tafsīr al-Qurʾān al-ʿaẓīm aka Tafsir Ibn Kathir, an exegesis of the Quran; - Al-Bidāya wan Nihāya (“The Beginning and the End”) 14-volume history of Islam; - Kitāb al-jāmiʿ, a grand collection of Hadith. |
Influenced by
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Arabic name | |
Personal (Ism) | Ismāʿīl إسماعيل |
Patronymic (Nasab) | ibn ʿUmar ibn Kaṯīr بن عمر بن كثير |
Teknonymic (Kunya) | Abū l-Fidāʾ أبو الفداء |
Epithet (Laqab) | ʿImād ud-Dīn عماد الدين "pillar of the faith" |
Toponymic (Nisba) |
Ad-Dimashqi Al-Qurashi Al-Busrawi |
Ismail ibn Kathir (Arabic: ابن كثير, born c. 1300, died 1373) was a highly influential Sunni scholar of the Shafi'i school during the Mamluk rule of Syria, an expert on tafsir (Quranic exegesis) and faqīh (jurisprudence) as well as a historian. Al-Hafiz Ibn Hajar Al-Asqalani said about him, “Ibn Kathir worked on the subject of the Hadith in the texts (متون) and chains of narrators (رجال). He had a good memory, his books became popular during his lifetime, and people benefited from them after his death.”
His full name was Abū l-Fidāʾ Ismāʿīl ibn ʿUmar ibn Kaṯīr (أبو الفداء إسماعيل بن عمر بن كثير), with the honorary title of ʿImād ad-Dīn (عماد الدين "pillar of the faith"). He was born in Mijdal, a village on the outskirts of the city of Busra, to the east of Damascus, Syria, around about AH 701 (AD 1300/1). He was taught by Ibn Taymiyya and Al-Dhahabi.
Upon completion of his studies he obtained his first official appointment in 1341, when he joined an inquisitorial commission formed to determine certain questions of heresy. He married the daughter of Al-Mizzi, one of the foremost Syrian scholars of the period, which gave him access to the scholarly elite. In 1345 he was made preacher (khatib) at a newly built mosque in Mizza, the home town of his father-in-law. In 1366, he rose to a professorial position at the Great Mosque of Damascus.