Ibn al-Mulaqqin

Siraj ad-Din Abu Hafs Umar ibn Ali ibn Ahmad ibn al-Mulaqqin (723-804 AH / 1323-1401 CE) was an Egyptian Shafi'i jurist and hadith scholar who ranks among the most prolific authors in Islamic history. Born in Cairo, he studied under numerous scholars and eventually became a teacher at several major institutions in Egypt. He was a student of the great Taqiyy ad-Din as-Subki among others.

Ibn al-Mulaqqin authored an extraordinary number of works — estimates range from three hundred to over five hundred titles — spanning jurisprudence, hadith, Quranic sciences, biography, and history. His most monumental work is al-Badr al-Munir fi Takhrij Ahadith ash-Sharh al-Kabir (The Shining Full Moon in Authenticating the Hadiths of the Major Commentary), a multi-volume hadith authentication work that examines the hadiths cited in ar-Rafi'i's al-Sharh al-Kabir (a major Shafi'i legal text). This work is one of the most important sources of hadith authentication in the Shafi'i tradition.

He also authored an abridgment of Sahih Ibn Hibban, al-Tawdih fi Sharh al-Jami' as-Sahih (a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari), and works in Quranic sciences, biography of hadith narrators, and Shafi'i jurisprudence. His Tabaqat al-Awliya' is a biographical work on Sufi figures, and his al-Wafi fi Sharh al-Arba'in an-Nawawiyyah is a commentary on Imam an-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths.

Ibn al-Mulaqqin passed away in Cairo in 804 AH. While his sheer volume of production has led some to note that not all his works are equally thorough, his contributions to hadith authentication in the Shafi'i legal tradition are of lasting value.