Shihab al-Din Ibn al-Muwajjih

Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim ibn Hasan al-Tal'afari al-Dimashqi al-Shafii, the well-known scholar called Ibn al-Mujjaj. He was born in Rabi al-Awwal in the year 841 or 842. He had a fine hand and wrote a great deal. He was held in awe by kings and amirs. He was very generous, and his table held the finest foods, which both the elite and the common people ate, including the governor and the judge of Damascus. His word carried weight, and every wronged person sought refuge with him ¹.

He divided the night into three parts: one for conversation and writing, one for sleep, and one for night prayer and recitation. Leading men, scholars and amirs visited him, especially Shaykh al-Islam Zayn al-Din Khattab, and leadership and high standing in Syria came to rest with him. Sultan Qaytbay offered him the preacher's post of Jerusalem while he was in Egypt. He accepted it but then gave it up to some people of Jerusalem, because he saw how eagerly they wanted it ¹.

He died in Damascus on Saturday, the thirteenth of Rabi al-Awwal in the year 912, and was buried in front of the grave of Shaykh Taqi al-Din al-Husni ¹.