Manla-zada al-Samarqandi

Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Uthman, known as Mulla-zada al-Samarqandi al-Khatali, after his grandfather al-Khattab, a Shafii. He was a learned imam, a jurist and a reciter of the Qur'an, with an exceptionally high chain of transmission in the readings: between him and al-Shatibi there were only four narrators. He travelled to the Arab lands, to Aleppo and to Damascus, and the people there took knowledge from him ¹.

He wrote many works, including a book that gathers material from al-Hidaya and al-Muharrar, and a commentary on Hidayat al-Hikma. Al-Najm al-Ghazzi wrote in "al-Kawakib al-Sa'ira" that Shaykh al-Islam al-Jadd studied with him and read to him the "Mutawassit" and the commentary on al-Shamsiyya, among other works. Al-Sayfi, the mufti of Aleppo, took from him the commentary of al-Baydawi on the Qur'an and praised him. It is reported that he used to say: "I am amazed at someone who memorises something and then forgets it." He died around the year 901 ¹.