al-Sakhawi

Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Sakhawi (831-902H / 1428-1497 CE) was a major hadith scholar and biographer of Cairo, and the foremost student of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani. His massive biographical dictionary al-Daw' al-Lami' li Ahl al-Qarn al-Tasi' (The Brilliant Light on the People of the 9th Century) contains over 11,000 entries on scholars and notables of the 9th/15th century — an incomparable source for that period. He also wrote al-Maqasid al-Hasanah on commonly circulated hadiths, al-Qawl al-Badi' on blessings upon the Prophet, and a multi-volume biography of Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani.