Shams al-Din al-Bisati

Chief judge Shams al-Din al-Bisati, a Maliki grammarian, born in Jumada I 760 AH in Bassat, and moved to Egypt, where he studied many disciplines. As a young student he was outstanding, his reputation grew, and he excelled in the rational sciences, Arabic grammar, rhetoric, eloquence and the two roots of jurisprudence, and he wrote on them and on jurisprudence. For a long time he lived in hardship, sleeping on reed husks. Later his fortune turned: he was appointed to teach Maliki law in the college of Jamal al-Din al-Ustadar, then to the shaykhdom of the tomb of al-Malik al-Nasir, then to teaching at al-Barquqiyya and al-Shaykhuniyya. He acted as deputy judge for his cousin, and in 823 AH he was appointed chief judge of Egypt. He held the post for twenty years and was never removed from it. He had heard from al-Taqi al-Baghdadi and others, but did not pay them much attention. His works include "al-Mughni" in jurisprudence, "Shifa' al-Ghalil" on the abridgement of Shaykh Khalil, a commentary on Ibn al-Hajib's Farʿi, a gloss on al-Mutawwal, glosses on the commentary on al-Matali' by al-Qutb, a gloss on al-ʿAdud's al-Mawaqif, notes on al-Baydawi's al-Tawali', and an introduction on the principles of religion. Several leading scholars of the age studied with him, among them Shaykh al-Imam al-Shamni and Chief Judge Muhyi al-Din al-Maliki, judge of Mecca. He died of colic on the twelfth of Ramadan 842 AH, and rain fell heavily after his burial. He died in Cairo ¹.