Al-Damiri (1341–1405), the common name of Kamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Musa al-Damiri (Arabic: كمال الدين محمد بن موسى الدميري), was an Egyptian Sunni scholar, Shafi'i jurist, traditionist, theologian, and an expert in the Arabic language.^[2] He was best known for his writing on canon law and natural history.^[3] He wrote the first known systematic work on zoological knowledge in Arabic, the Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, c.1371.^[4]

Life

Al-Damiri was born in the year 742 AH/1341 CE in the city of Cairo, where he lived, learned, graduated, and died, although his family’s origins go back to the depths of the Egyptian countryside, from the village of Damira, close to the city of Samannoud. Since his youth, he worked with his father in a sewing shop, and his love for animals continued to grow with him, along with his passion for science and other knowledge, which prompted his father to direct him to complete his religious studies at Al-Azhar.^[5]

He studied mastered the sciences of theology, jurisprudence, hadith, Arabic, and etc in Al-Azhar University under the leading scholars of his day, most notably Jamal al-Din al-Isnawi, Bahaā' al-Din al-Subki, Burhan al-Din al-Qirati, Ibn Aqil including the three marvels of his era, Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini, Zain al-Din al-Iraqi, and Ibn al-Mulaqqin.^[5]

His brilliance and distinction enabled him to successfully reach the level of professorship and his teachers recognized this for him, he turned to teaching at Al-Azhar university, where he taught lessons to his students on Saturdays, and in Rukniyya, where he became the professor of tradition and lectured on the science of hadith, and at the Ibn al-Baqri School in Bab al-Nasr, where he preached to people on the day of Friday, and at Al-Zahir Mosque in Al-Husseiniyah neighborhood, where he used to give his lessons after Friday afternoon.^[3][5] He was a mystic, or Ṣūfī, who was renowned for his fasting, prayer, and asceticism. He made pilgrimage to Mecca over six times.^[6]

Among those who mentioned that they studied under Kamal al-Din al-Dumiri was the hadith scholar and historian, Taqi al-Din al-Fasi, the Shafi’i jurist, Ibn Imad al-Aqfahsi and the scholar and historian al-Maqrizi

Works

Al-Damiri was a prolific writer and excelled in jurisprudence in which he wrote a commentary on the Minhāj al-Ṭalibīn of Al-Nawawi.^[3] and he excelled in the sciences of hadith, Arabic, theology, however, he was better known in the history of literature for his Life of Animals^[7] (Ḥayāt al-ḥayawān al-kubrā, c.1371), which treats in alphabetic order of 931 animals mentioned in the Quran, the traditions and the poetical and proverbial literature of the Arabs. The work is a compilation from over 500 prose writers and nearly 200 poets. The correct spelling of the names of the animals is given with an explanation of their meanings. The use of the animals in medicine, their lawfulness or unlawfulness as food, their position in folklore are the main subjects treated, while occasionally long irrelevant sections on political history are introduced.^[3]

The work exists in three forms. The fullest has been published several times in Egypt; a mediate and a short recension exist in manuscript. Several editions have been made at various times of extracts, among them the poetical one by al-Suyuti, which was translated into Latin by Abraham Ecchelensis (Paris, 1667). Bochartus in his Hierozoicon (1663) used al-Damiri's work. There is a translation of the whole into English by Lieutenant-Colonel Jayakar (Bombay, 1906–1908).^[3]