and his brothers to Greater Syria when the Tatars (Mongols) advanced, so they arrived in Damascus. There he was reared in righteousness; Allah caused him to grow in the best of ways, and the signs of brilliance were evident on him in childhood. He completed the Qur’an at a young age, then applied himself to memorising hadith, jurisprudence, and Arabic until he excelled in them. All the while he frequented gatherings of remembrance and listened to hadith and historical reports, hearing the principal collections of Islam—such as the Sahih of al-Bukhari, the Sahih of Muslim, the Sunan of Abu Dawud, al-Tirmidhi, al-Nasa’i, Ibn Majah, and al-Daraqutni, as well as the Musnad of Imam Ahmad—several times. The first hadith work he memorised was Al-Jamʿ bayna al-Sahihayn (The Concordance of the Two Sahihs) by Imam al-Humaydi (1).

After detailing the Shaykh’s—may Allah have mercy on him—care for hadith, fiqh, and Arabic, Ibn ʿAbd al-Hadi says:

“He studied the Kitab of Sibawayh until he mastered grammar, immersed himself entirely in Qur’anic exegesis until he took first place in it, and perfected the principles of jurisprudence and other sciences. All of this while he was still only in his teens! The people of Damascus were astonished by the sharpness of his intellect, the flow of his mind, the strength of his memory, and the speed of his understanding.” (2)

Ibn ʿAbd al-Hadi also transmits from the ḥāfiẓ Abu ʿAbd Allah al-Dhahabi, who said:

“Shaykh Taqi al-Din, may Allah have mercy on him, was raised in complete propriety, chastity, devotion, and worship, living frugally in clothing and food. As a youth he attended schools and scholarly gatherings, debated with elders and silenced them, producing insights that left the city’s notables in bewilderment. He issued legal verdicts at the age of nineteen—indeed, even younger—and from that time began compiling and authoring works, applying himself earnestly to study. When his father—one of the leading Hanbali imams—died, he took over his teaching duties at twenty-one. His reputation spread far and wide. He commenced expounding the Noble Qur’an before large audiences, seated on a chair, reciting from memory without faltering; likewise, his lessons were delivered deliberately, in a strong, clear, and eloquent voice.” (3)

He continued to grow in knowledge and in working at it, spreading and disseminating it,