Al-Haskafi

Muhammad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Haskafi al-Dimashqi (1025-1088 AH / 1616-1677 CE) was a prominent Hanafi jurist and the Hanafi chief mufti of Damascus during the Ottoman period, who produced one of the most widely referenced and studied texts in late Hanafi jurisprudence. His kunya was Abu al-Fadl and his family name al-Haskafi derives from Hisn Kayfa (Hasankeyf) in southeast Anatolia, indicating his family's origins before settlement in Damascus.

Al-Haskafi studied under senior Hanafi scholars of Damascus, mastering the school's jurisprudence and the rich Ottoman-era Hanafi scholarly tradition. He was appointed as the official Hanafi mufti (mufti al-Hanafiyyah) of Damascus, one of the most important judicial and religious appointments in the city, and served in this capacity for many years. His fatwas addressed difficult legal questions, and his scholarly authority was widely acknowledged across Syria and the broader Ottoman Arab world.

His most important work is ad-Durr al-Mukhtar Sharh Tanwir al-Absar wa-Jami al-Bihar (The Chosen Pearl: Commentary on the Illumination of Sights and Collection of Seas), a commentary on the Hanafi legal text Tanwir al-Absar by at-Tumurtashi al-Ghazzi. Al-Haskafi's commentary achieved great authority for its comprehensive coverage of Hanafi legal positions, its clear identification of the relied-upon opinions of the school, and its systematic organization covering all chapters of Islamic jurisprudence.

Its lasting significance was decisively amplified when the great Muhammad Amin ibn Abidin (d. 1252 AH / 1836 CE) — the most celebrated Hanafi scholar of the modern era — selected al-Haskafi's ad-Durr al-Mukhtar as the base text for his monumental super-commentary Radd al-Muhtar ala ad-Durr al-Mukhtar, popularly known as Hashiyat Ibn Abidin. Through this relationship, al-Haskafi's work became embedded at the center of the most comprehensive and authoritative reference of late Hanafi jurisprudence. The two texts are inseparable: wherever the Hashiyah of Ibn Abidin is studied — in the Arab world, South Asia, Turkey, and wherever the Hanafi school is practiced — al-Haskafi's ad-Durr al-Mukhtar is its foundation.

He passed away in Damascus in 1088 AH (1677 CE).