At a glance
- Roles
- mufassir · mufti · Scholar
- Counted among
- Sunni
- Era
- The Colonial Era
- Region
- Levant & Iraq
Life in time
In space
Map: Natural Earth, public domain · places and route from the graph
Summary
Abu al-Thana' Shihab al-Din Mahmud ibn Abd Allah ibn Mahmud ibn Darwish ibn Ashur al-Alusi of Baghdad, exegete and mufti of Baghdad and author of Ruh al-Ma'ani, traced his descent to al-Husayn ibn Ali (may God be pleased with him). 1 The origin of the name al-Alusi is disputed: some link it to Alus, a village on the Euphrates near Anat, which Muhammad Bahjat al-Athari favoured; other views exist. 1
Birth and upbringing
He was born in al-Karkh, Baghdad, shortly before the Friday prayer on 14 Sha'ban 1217 AH, into a learned family. 2 Before he was seven he had memorised the Qur'an together with the Ajurrumiyya, Ibn Malik's Alfiyya and the Rahbiyya on inheritance, and read Ghayat al-Ikhtisar in Shafi'i law; before ten he had mastered Arabic and read some Shafi'i and Hanafi law, logic and hadith. 2 In the preface to his commentary he says he read by moonlight when candles ran short and was speaking on the finer points of tafsir before he was twenty. 3
Teachers
The thesis Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya lists among his best-known teachers: Mulla Husayn al-Juburi, from whom he learned the Qur'an; his father Abd Allah, for grammar, inheritance and Shafi'i law; Ala' al-Din Ali al-Mawsili, with whom he stayed fourteen years until he graduated and received his licence; Abd Allah al-Umari, for the readings of Nafi', Ibn Kathir and Abu Amr; Ali ibn Muhammad Sa'id al-Suwaydi, with whom he read Ibn Hajar's Sharh al-Nukhba; and Diya' al-Din Khalid al-Naqshbandi, with whom he read the question of the divine attributes and from whom he took the Naqshbandi path; others licensed him, among them Abd al-Rahman al-Kuzbari and Ahmad Arif Hikmat, whom al-Alusi licensed in turn. 4 5 6
Teaching and the office of mufti
Licensed at twenty-four, he was appointed that same day to teach at a college, then taught at many others until he became mufti, and was consulted from distant lands; his students included his brothers Abd al-Rahman and Abd al-Hamid. 7 Because the office of mufti went only to a Hanafi and he was a Shafi'i, he studied the Hanafi school in a short time. 8 His grandson Abu al-Ma'ali reports that while mufti he followed Abu Hanifa in transactions but kept his own school in worship, and after his dismissal would say: "I am a Shafi'i unless the evidence shows me otherwise." 9
Works
The thesis, citing al-Athari, says his works exceeded twenty, apart from fatwas, letters and poems, and lists among them Ruh al-Ma'ani; al-Ajwiba al-Iraqiyya 'ala al-As'ila al-Iraniyya; al-Ajwiba al-Iraqiyya 'ala al-As'ila al-Lahuriyya, answering a question from the scholars of Lahore about those who revile the Companions; al-Nafahat al-Qudsiyya fi al-Radd 'ala al-Imamiyya; Kashf al-Turra 'an al-Ghurra on language; a gloss on Sharh al-Qatr written at thirteen and finished by his son Nu'man; Ghara'ib al-Ightirab, on his journey to Istanbul and his own life; and Nashwat al-Shumul and Nashwat al-Mudam, on his journey to Istanbul and his return. 10 11 12 13 Whether Daqa'iq al-Tafsir is his is disputed, as the thesis notes. 14 15
Standing
Abbas al-Azzawi says the modern age in Iraq should be called "the age of al-Alusi", and al-Zirikli calls him "Salafi in belief, a mujtahid"; on his creed see Was al-Alusi Salafi in creed?. 16 The poet Abd al-Ghaffar al-Akhras praised him in thirty-seven poems. 17
Death
His fortunes turned after his time as mufti and he travelled to Istanbul; after thirteen months he came back, met cold and heavy rain on the way, and remained ill until he died in Baghdad in Dhu al-Qa'da 1270 AH, aged fifty-three. 18
Connections
- Born in
- Baghdad
- Died in
- Baghdad
- Studied under
- Diya al-Din Khalid al-Naqshbandi (Mawlana Khalid)
- Authored
- Ruh al-Ma'ani
- Participated in
- Al-Alusi begins Ruh al-Ma'ani, 1252/1836
People and things also explored
Tafsir (Qur'anic exegesis)· Abd Allah ibn Dhakwan Abu al-Zinad· Abu Ishaq al-Shirazi· Al-Daraqutni· Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi· Ibn Khuzayma, Muhammad ibn Ishaq· Ibn Rajab al-Hanbali· al-Shaykh al-Tusi
Sources
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.27
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.28
- Ruh al-Ma'ani fi Tafsir al-Qur'an al-Azim wa'l-Sab' al-Mathani — Mahmud al-Alusi, ed. Ali Abd al-Bari Atiyya, vol. 1 (Dar al-Kutub al-Ilmiyya, Beirut, 1st ed., 1994) , p.4
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.29
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.30
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.31
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.32
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.41
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.57
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.34
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.35
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.36
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.37
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.38
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.39
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.44
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.45
- Juhud al-Alusi al-Balaghiyya: al-Alusi's work in rhetoric through Ruh al-Ma'ani — doctoral thesis in rhetoric and criticism (supervisor Dr Muhammad al-Hasan Ali al-Amin, 2008–2009) , p.58
Cite this page
islam.museum contributors. “Mahmud al-Alusi (Abu al-Thana' Shihab al-Din)”. islam.museum, https://islam.museum/en/person/mahmud-al-alusi/. CC BY-SA 4.0. Last updated 2026-11-06.
Improve this page on GitHub · Report an error · Help complete it · JSON