He was a man of eminent standing. He drafted the official correspondence for al-Nāṣir Dāwud ibn al-Muʿaẓẓam and supervised the Nūrī bīmāristān (1) and other charitable foundations. His life was widely praised, and more than one scholar spoke well of him. He lived beyond eighty years, and among his verses are the following (2):
[from the munsariḥ meter]
Frustrated is the hope of one whose longing
seeks an answer from other than the Lord of heaven.
Would a man of true trust turn elsewhere,
when He already cared for him deep in the womb?
He also said (3):
[from the kāmil meter]
The tongue is struck dumb, too weary to describe you;
what can it say (4) when you are who you are?
The matter so surpasses any speaker’s words
that reason itself is bewildered (5) at expressing you.
Inability and shortcoming are ever my lot,
while beneficence and kindness are ever known of you.
Ibn Mālik (6), author of the Alfiyyah: Shaykh Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allah ibn Mālik, Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Ṭāʾī al-Jayyānī (7), the grammarian.
A prolific scholar whose celebrated works continue to benefit students; among them are al-Kāfiyah al-Shāfiyah with its commentary, al-Tashīl with his own commentary, and the Alfiyyah, which his son Badr al-Dīn later annotated to good effect. He was born in Jaén (8) in 600 AH, lived for a period in Aleppo, and then
(1) The Nūrī maristān (hospital) has remained standing to the present day between al-ʿAṣrūniyya and al-Ṣāgha; it was recently converted into the Museum of Arab Sciences.
(2) There are three couplets in the appendix (dhayl) of al-Marʾah, vol. 3, p. 39.
(3) Three verses appear in the appendix of al-Marʾah, vol. 3, p. 45.
(4) In the appendix of al-Marʾah: “What shall I say.”
(5) In the appendix of al-Marʾah: “It has strayed among you that…”
(6) In the margin appears the following biography, which is not found in other manuscripts nor in the chronicles of that year: “Shaykh Ṣadr al-Dīn al-Qūnawī.” He authored several works, notably Miftāḥ al-Ghayb, Sharḥ al-Asmāʾ, and Sharḥ Sūra al-Fātiḥa. He was a scholar of high standing, of princely lineage, a disciple of Shaykh Muḥyī al-Dīn ibn ʿArabī, and was buried in Konya (may Allah have mercy on him).
Note: His full name is Muḥammad ibn Isḥāq ibn Muḥammad ibn Yūsuf ibn ʿAlī al-Qūnawī al-Rūmī Ṣadr al-Dīn. He died in 672 AH. See his biography in Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 15, pp. 240, 266), Al-Aʿlām (al-Zarkalī, vol. 6, p. 254), and Muʿjam al-Muʾallifīn (vol. 9, p. 43).
(7) For the biography of Ibn Mālik, see Dhayl Mirʾat al-Zamān (vol. 3, pp. 76–79), Mukhtaṣar Abī al-Fidāʾ (vol. 4, p. 8), Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 15, p. 249), Al-Iʿlām bi-Wafayāt al-Aʿlām (p. 280), al-ʿIbar (vol. 5, p. 300), al-Ishāra (p. 366), al-Nujūm al-Zāhira (vol. 7, p. 244), al-Wāfī bi-l-Wafayāt (vol. 3, p. 359), Bughyaẗ al-Wughāt (vol. 1, pp. 130–177), and Shadharāt al-Dhahab (vol. 7, p. 590).
(8) In al-Ḥayānī’s edition, the name is given as “Ḥayyān” with a silent initial Ḥā in both words; this is a corruption. Yāqūt writes it as “Jayyān” with a fatḥa, then…