Tahir al-Jazairi

Tahir al-Jaza'iri (full name: Arabic: طاهر بن محمد صالح بن أحمد بن موهوب السمعوني الجزائري الدمشقي, romanized: Ṭāhir bin Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ bin Aḥmad bin Mawhūb al-Samʿūni al-Jazāʿiri al-Dimashqi[5]) was born in 1852 in Damascus to an academic family of the Sam'un Amazigh tribe of Algeria.[1][5] His father, Muhammad Salih, a mufti of the Maliki school of jurisprudence, had migrated from Algeria to Damascus in 1846.[6]

Tahir studied with his father until the latter's death around 1868, after which he studied under Abd al-Ghani Al-Maydani, Abd ar-Rahman al-Bustani, and Abd ar-Rahman al-Bushnaqi at the Madrasa al-Jaqmaqiyya next to the Umayyad Mosque.[6][1]

Tahir al-Jazairi was interested in Arabic and in Arabic literature, particularly old manuscripts.[6] His mastery of Persian was comparable to his mastery of Arabic, and he was also proficient in Ottoman Turkish.[6] He also studied French, Hebrew, Syriac, Ethiopian, several ancient Semitic languages, and Tamazight, though he did not master these.[6]

At the age of 22, he started teaching at al-Madrasa al-Zahiriyeh in Damascus.[6] Under the reforms of the governor Midhat Pasha, al-Jazairi became inspector of education.[6] According to Muḥammad Kurd ʿAlī, al-Jazairi also designed curricula for elementary education and wrote the necessary textbooks, in topics including Arabic grammar, ethics, religion, and history.[6] Under Midhat Pasha, al-Jazairi also founded Dar al-Kutub az-Zahiriyah, the library of the Az-Zahiriyah Madrasa, with manuscripts he collected from around Damascus.[6] He then established Khalidi Library in Jerusalem in the name of Sheikh Raghib al-Khalidi of the Khalidi family.[6] He associated with intellectuals such as Jamal al-Din Qasimi, Abd ar-Razzāq al-Baytar, and Salim al-Bukhari.[6]

In 1902, he was dismissed from his position as inspector of libraries.[6] Under continued pressure from Ottoman authorities, he left for Cairo in 1905 where he associated with Ahmad Zaki Pasha and Ahmed Taymour Pasha.[6] In Cairo, he supported himself as a book merchant, dealing in valuable manuscripts.[6] He remained in Cairo for about thirteen years and in 1920 he became seriously ill, and he returned to Damascus. One of his pupils during this period was Muhib Al Din Al Khatib who would be a significant figure for the Salafi movement in Egypt.[2] Soon after his return he was elected as a member of the Arabic Academy in Damascus and the Director of the Ẓāhirīyyah Library. He passed away four months later in 1920 and was buried on the Qāsiyūn Mountain in Damascus, Syria.[5]

Joseph H. Escovitz noted, writing in 1986, that there had been no study of him in English and that even the Encyclopaedia of Islam had no mention of him.[6]

Shaykh Muḥammad Saʿīd al-Bānī al-Dimashqī, Muḥammad Kurd ʿAlī, Shaykh ʿAlī al-Ṭanṭāwī, and Shaykh ʿAdnān al-Khaṭīb and others revered him and wrote about Shaykh Ṭāhir’s productive life and distinct personality.[5] Muhammad Kurd Ali described him as the Muhammad Abduh of Syria, while Hisham Sharabi called him "the leading spirit of Islamic reformism in Syria."[6]

Shaykh Ṭāhir wrote many books over thirty-five in number on various subjects. These include ʿAqīdah, ʿUlūm al-Qur’ān, Tajwīd, the science of Ḥadīth, Sīrah, Uṣūl, Arabic rhetoric, Arabic literature, the philosophy of natural mathematics, history and an introduction to many Islamic manuscripts. His most important books are listed below.[5]