al-Burini

{{Short description|Syrian historian, poet and Shafi'i jurist (1556-1615)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Al-Burini

| image =

| caption =

| birth_date = July 1556

| birth_place = Saffuriya, near Nazareth, Galilee

| death_date = June 11, 1615

| death_place = Damascus

| nationality = Ottoman Arab

| occupation = Historian, Poet, Shafi'i Jurist

| notable_works = Tarajim al-A'yan min Abna al-Zaman, al-Rihlat al-Tarabulusiyya, al-Rihlat al-Halabiyya

}}

Badr al-Din al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Dimashqi al-Saffuri al-Burini (July 1556-11 June 1615), commonly known as al-Hasan al-Burini, was a Damascus-based Ottoman Arab historian and poet and Shafi'i jurist.

Life

Al-Burini was born in mid-July 1556 in the village of Saffuriya near Nazareth in the Galilee, hence his nisba (epithet) "al-Saffuri".{{sfn|Brockelmann|1960|p=1333}} His father Muhammad was originally from the village of Burin near Nablus hence the nisba "al-Burini".{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=45}} At the age of 10 he moved to Damascus with his father.{{sfn|Brockelmann|1960|p=1333}}

Al-Burini learned the Qur'an at the Manjak Mosque in the Midan neighborhood in his adolescence.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=45}} Afterward, he received an education in Arabic grammar, qanun (secular law) and arithmetic from Damascene ulema (religious scholars) at the Madrasa al-Umariyya in the Salihiyya neighborhood.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=45}} His studies there were interrupted by a famine, which prompted him to relocate to Jerusalem from 1567 to 1571.{{sfn|Brockelmann|1960|p=1333}} In Jerusalem he was taught by Muhammad ibn Abi al-Lutf.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=45}} He moved back to Damascus in 1571, settling in the Sufi lodge of Samisatiyya where he expanded his education to literature, fiqh (jurisprudence), tafsir (Qur'anic interpretations), and hadith.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|pp=45–46}} By 1580 he had mastered Persian, as taught to him by Persian author Hafiz Husayn al-Karbala'i (d. 1588) in Aleppo or Damascus.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=46}} Later in life, he also learned Turkish.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=47}}

After completing his studies, al-Burini became the head of the Shafi'i fiqh in the Umayyad Mosque in 1580. About the same time he began making sermons at the Sultan Mosque and became a lecturer in a number of Damascus madrasas. He was known by his students for his eloquence, charisma and literary knowledge, while the historians and religious scholars of the period lauded al-Burini for the same qualities, as well as his interest in history and philology. The governors and judges of Damascus trusted and appreciated al-Burini, considering him an accomplished Shafi’i jurist with independent judgements.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=46}} He served as the kadi (Islamic head judge) of the Ottoman Hajj pilgrimage caravan from Damascus to Mecca in 1611.{{sfn|Brockelmann|1960|p=1333}} On 11 June 1615 he died in Damascus and was buried in the cemetery of Bab al-Faradis.{{sfn|Brockelmann|1960|p=1333}}{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=47}}

Literary works

One of al-Burini's main bodies of work was Tarajim al-A'yan min Abna al-Zaman, a collection of 205 biographies of notable contemporary scholars, rulers and artisans, completed in 1614 after ten years.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=47}} Fadl Allah ibn Muhibb Allah edited and published the work in 1667 with a supplement.{{sfn|Brockelmann|1960|p=1333}} The work was republished in Damascus in 1959.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=47}}

Al-Burini often traveled to different parts of Syria, penning two works about his trips to Tripoli in 1599/1600 and Aleppo in al-Rihlat al-Tarabulusiyya and al-Rihlat al-Halabiyya, respectively.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=46}} During his visits to Tripoli and its Akkar countryside he was hosted by the chieftain and governor Yusuf Sayfa Pasha.{{sfn|Abu-Husayn|1985|p=62}}

His poetry is mostly found in a diwan located in Istanbul. His epistle to As'ad ibn Muiin al-Din al-Tibrizi al-Dimashqi is located in Gotha, his Marathi poems for the Sufi Muhammad ibn Abi'l-Barakat al-Qadiri is preserved in Berlin and number of his poems are held in the British Museum in London.{{sfn|Brockelmann|1960|p=1333}}

He penned a commentary on the diwan of Ibn al-Farid in 1591 and a commentary on the latter's al-Ta’iyya al-Sughra in 1593.{{sfn|Mullazadih|2013|p=47}}

References

Bibliography

{{cite book |last1=Abu-Husayn |first1=Abdul-Rahim |authorlink=Abdulrahim Abu-Husayn |title=Provincial Leaderships in Syria, 1575-1650 |date=1985 |publisher=American University of Beirut |location=Beirut |isbn=9780815660729 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D1ttAAAAMAAJ }}
{{EI2 |last=Brockelmann |first=C.|author-link= Carl Brockelmann |article=Al-Burini |volume=1 |page=1333}}
{{cite book |last=Mullazadih |first=Muhammad Hani |title=Historians of the Islamic World: Selected Entries from Encyclopedia of the World of Islam |editor1=Adel, G.H.|editor1-link=Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel |editor2=Elmi, Mohammad Jafar |editor3=Taromi-Rad, Hassan |location=London |publisher=EWI Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-1-908433-12-1 |chapter=Al-Burini, Hasan ibn Muhammad Dimashqi Saffuri |pages=45–48}}

al-Burini

Life

Literary works

References

Bibliography

Further reading