Sa'ad al-Din Masud ibn Umar ibn Abd Allah al-Taftazani () also known as Al-Taftazani and Taftazani (1322–1390) was a Muslim Persian people polymath.[Al-Taftazani, Sad al-Din Masud ibn Umar ibn Abd Allah (1950). A Commentary on the Creed of Islam: Sad al-Din al-Taftazani on the Creed of Najm al-Din al-Nasafi (Earl Edgar Elder Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. XX.]["Al-Taftazanni Sa'd al-Din Masud b. Umar b. Abdullah", in Encyclopedia Islam by W. Madelung, Brill. 2007][Elias John Wilkinson Gibb, History of Ottoman Poetry, Volume 1, London, 1900. excerpt from pg 202: "..the next work in Turkish poetry is versified translation of Sa'adi's Bustan or 'Orchard' made in 755 by the great and famous Persian schoolmen Sa'd-ud-Din Me'sud-i-Teftazani."][Gerhard Endress, An Introduction to Islam, translated by Carole Hillenbrand, Columbia University Press, 1998. excerpt from pg 192: "Death of Sa'ad al-Din al-Taftazani, Persian historian and philosopher at the court of Timur"][Allen J. Frank, Islamic Historiography and "Bulghar" Identity Among the Tatars and Bashkirs of Russia, Brill, 1998. excerpt from pg 83:One of the most curious aspects of the Tawarikh i-Baghdadiya are the repeated references to the great Persian theologian Sa'd al-Din Taftazani (1322-1389), who did in fact associate with Timur.][Knysh, A. D. (1999). Ibn ʻArabi in the Later Islamic Tradition: The Making of a Polemical Image in Medieval Islam. New York. State University of New York Press. p. 144.]
Early life and education
Al-Taftazani was born in 1322 in
Taftazan,
Greater Khorasan in
Iran, then in the
Sarbedaran state.
[Al-Taftazani, Sad al-Din Masud ibn Umar ibn Abd Allah (1950). A Commentary on the Creed of Islam: Sad al-Din al-Taftazani on the Creed of Najm al-Din al-Nasafi (Earl Edgar Elder Trans.). New York: Columbia University Press. p. XX.][Halil Inalcik, "The Ottoman Empire", Published by Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2000. except from pg 175:"The Ottoman ulema equally respected Sa'ad al-Din al-Taftazani from Iran and Sayyid Sharif al-Jurjani from Turkestan, both of whom followed the tradition of al-Razi and whose work formed the basis of Ottoman Medrese education"] He completed his education in various educational institutions in the cities of
Herat, Ghijduvan, Feryumed, Gulistan,
Khwarizm,
Samarkand and
Sarakhs. His most prominent teacher was Adud al-Din al-Iji.
He mainly resided in
Sarakhs. He was active during the reign of
Timur, who noticed him as a promising scientist and supported his scholarship, and was part of his court. Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani famously remarked about him that "science ended with him in the East" and "no one could ever replace him".
[Al-Asqalani, Ibn Hajar. al-Durar al-Kamina.] He died in
Samarkand in 1390 and was buried in
Sarakhs.
Career
During his lifetime, he wrote treaties on grammar, rhetoric, theology, logic, law and
Quran exegesis.
His works were used as textbooks for centuries in Ottoman madrasahs
and are used in
Shia madrasahs to this day.
[Roy Mottahedeh, The Mantle of the Prophet; Momen, Introduction to Shi'i Islam.] He completed "Sharh-i az-Zanjani" which was his first and one of his most famous works at the age of 16.
[Ibn ul Imad, Imad. (1989). Sezherat uz-Zeheb. Beyrut.] He also wrote a commentary of the Qur'an in
Persian language and translated a volume of Sa'adi's poetry from Persian into Turkish. But it was in Arabic that he composed the bulk of his writing.
His treatises, even the commentaries, are "standard books" for students of Islamic theology and his papers have been called a "compendium of the various views regarding the great doctrines of Islam".
Legacy
Ibn Khaldun said of him:
[Smith, J. R.; Smith, J.; Smith, L. B. (1980). Essentials of World History. Barron's Educational Series, p. 20,][Ibn Khaldun (1969). The Muqaddimah, an Introduction to History (Rosenthal, F. Trans., Dawood, N. J. Ed.). Bollingen series, 160. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press. p. 92.]
I found in Egypt numerous works on the intellectual sciences composed by the well-known person Sa'd al-Din al-Taftazani, a native of Herat, one of the villages of Greater Khorasan. Some of them are on kalam (speculative theology) and the Usul al-fiqh and rhetoric, which show that he had a profound knowledge of these sciences. Their contents demonstrate that he was well versed in the philosophical sciences and far advanced in the rest of the sciences which deal with Reason.
Writings by Al-Taftazani
Linguistics
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Sharḥ al-Zanjānī (aka. Serh ul Izzi fi't-Tasrîf, a.k.a. Sa'diyye). (738 Hijri year). His first work.
-
Al-Irsād (a.k.a. Irsad ul Hadi). (778 AH).
-
al-Niʿam al-Sawābigh fī Sharḥ al-Nawābigh.
Rhetoric
-
Al-Mutawwal (747 AH).
-
Al-Mukhtaṣar (a.k.a. Muhtaṣar al-Maʿānī). (756 AH).
-
Sharḥ Miftāḥ al-ʿUlūm (a.k.a. Miftāḥ al-ʿUlūm). (787 AH).
Logic
-
Sharḥ al-Risalat al-Shamsiyya (a.k.a. Sharḥ al-Shamsiyya). (752 AH).
-
Maqāṣid al-Ṭalibīn fī ʿIlm Usul al-Din (a.k.a. Al-Maqāṣid). (784 AH).
-
Tazhib al-Manṭiq wa-l-Kalam. (739 AH).
-
Sharḥ al-ʿAqaʾid al-Nasafiyya (767 AH; commentary on Abu Ḥafṣ ʿUmar al-Nasafi's creed).
Legal Sciences
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at-Talwīḥ fī Kashf al-Haqāʾiq al-Tanqīh (758 AH).
-
Ḥāshiyya al-Mukhtaṣar al-Muntahā. (770 AH).
-
Miftāḥ al-Fiqh (a.k.a. Al-Miftāḥ). (782 AH).
-
Ikhtiṣār al-Sharḥ Talhīs al-Jāmiʿ al-Kabīr. (785 AH).
-
Al-Fatāwā al-Hanaffiya. (759 AH). A detailed compilation of his juristical decisions during his juristicaal career.
-
Sharḥ al-Farāʾid al-Sirajiyya.
Theology
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Sharh al-'Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya: This is a commentary on Abu Hafs Umar al-Nasafi's treatise on the creed of Islam. Taftazani's commentary on this work soon became the most acclaimed commentary. By 17th century, there were more than fifty further commentaries that were written on Taftazani's "Sharh 'Aqaid al-Nasafi". He wrote this explanation according to the methodology of the maturidis.
-
Sharh al Maqasid. The most advanced comprehensive Ash'ari theology book written until today alongside Sharh al Mawaqif of Al-Sharif al-Jurjani.
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Hashiyye Ala al-Kashshaf. (789 AH). This is an unfinished work of his.
-
Al Arbain.
-
Sharh ul Hadis ul Erbain en Neveviyye.
-
Hashiyat al kashaf (extremely rare work by Taftazani) never finished by the scholar or unknown compiled during his lifetime. There are 3 manuscripts that have shed light on the subject and are known to the public in museums and private collections. One is dated 1147 AH (private Saudi collection and is the oldest dated copy of his work some 357 years after his death), one dated 1209 AH, and one dated 1237 AH.
See also
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List of Ash'aris and Maturidis
-
List of Muslim theologians
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List of Iranian scientists and scholars
External links
