Suyūṭī: Abū al-Faḍl ^ҁAbd al-Raḥmān Jalāl al-Dīn al-Suyūṭī

Born Cairo, (Egypt), 1445

Died 1505

Suyūṭī wrote an important work on “religious” astronomy, whose sources derived from the traditions of the Prophet. Born into a family engaged in religious scholarship and holding administrative offices, he became the most prolific authors in all of Islamic literature. His father was a preacher, taught Shāfi^ҁī religious law, and acted as a deputy judge (qāḍī). He died prematurely when his son was only 5 years old, but he had made financial arrangements that allowed Suyūṭī to pursue a path of scholarship through the guardianship and aid of his father’s friends and students. Suyūṭī commenced his studies at an early age, with the study of Islamic religious sciences under various teachers. This included the study of ḥadīth(statements and actions of the Prophet Muḥammad and his companions as recorded by his contemporaries and collated into collections by later authors), some rudimentary arithmetic for the solution of problems of inheritance, and probably...