Layth ibn Sa'd

Layth ibn Sa'd (713-791 CE) was the undisputed leading scholar of Egypt during the second Islamic century. Born in Qarqashandah near Fustat (old Cairo), he came from a family that had settled in Egypt after the conquests. He studied under the greatest scholars of his generation in Medina, Mecca, and across the Muslim lands, mastering hadith, fiqh, and the Quranic sciences before returning to establish Egypt as a major center of Islamic learning.

Layth combined exceptional scholarship with extraordinary worldly success and generosity. He earned approximately eighty thousand dinars annually from agriculture and trade, yet he distributed the entirety of this income in charity, to the point that he himself never had enough surplus to pay zakah (since he gave it all away before the year ended). When scholars from other lands would write to him seeking financial support, he would send them substantial sums without hesitation. His home in Fustat was open to students, travelers, and the needy alike.

Ash-Shafii remarked that al-Layth was a greater jurist than Malik but was let down by his students, who failed to preserve and codify his rulings systematically. As a result, the Laythi school of fiqh gradually faded after his death, replaced first by the Maliki school and later by the Shafii school in Egypt. Despite this, al-Layth's hadith narrations are found in all six canonical collections, and his legal opinions are frequently cited by later scholars. He died in 175 AH (791 CE) in Cairo.