Al-Burini

Al-Burini was born in mid-July 1556 in the village of Saffuriya near Nazareth in the Galilee, hence his nisba (epithet) "al-Saffuri".[1] His father Muhammad was originally from the village of Burin near Nablus hence the nisba "al-Burini".[2] At the age of 10 he moved to Damascus with his father.[1]

Al-Burini learned the Qur'an at the Manjak Mosque in the Midan neighborhood in his adolescence.[2] 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.[2] His studies there were interrupted by a famine, which prompted him to relocate to Jerusalem from 1567 to 1571.[1] In Jerusalem he was taught by Muhammad ibn Abi al-Lutf.[2] 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.[3] By 1580 he had mastered Persian, as taught to him by Persian author Hafiz Husayn al-Karbala'i (d. 1588) in Aleppo or Damascus.[4] Later in life, he also learned Turkish.[5]

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.[4] He served as the kadi (Islamic head judge) of the Ottoman Hajj pilgrimage caravan from Damascus to Mecca in 1611.[1] On 11 June 1615 he died in Damascus and was buried in the cemetery of Bab al-Faradis.[1][5]

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.[5] Fadl Allah ibn Muhibb Allah edited and published the work in 1667 with a supplement.[1] The work was republished in Damascus in 1959.[5]

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.[4] During his visits to Tripoli and its Akkar countryside he was hosted by the chieftain and governor Yusuf Sayfa Pasha.[6]

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.[1]

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.[5]

• Abu-Husayn, Abdul-Rahim (1985). Provincial Leaderships in Syria, 1575-1650. Beirut: American University of Beirut. ISBN 9780815660729.
• Brockelmann, C. (1960). "Al-Burini". In Gibb, H. A. R.; Kramers, J. H.; Lévi-Provençal, E.; Schacht, J.; Lewis, B. & Pellat, Ch. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. Volume I: A–B (2nd ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 1333. OCLC 495469456.
• Mullazadih, Muhammad Hani (2013). "Al-Burini, Hasan ibn Muhammad Dimashqi Saffuri". In Adel, G.H.; Elmi, Mohammad Jafar; Taromi-Rad, Hassan (eds.). Historians of the Islamic World: Selected Entries from Encyclopedia of the World of Islam. London: EWI Press. pp. 45–48. ISBN 978-1-908433-12-1.

• El-Rouayheb, Khaled. "al-Burini, Hasan b. Muhammad (1556-1615)". Historians of the Ottoman Empire. The University of Chicago: Division of the Humanities. Retrieved 8 January 2022.