Burhan al-Din al-Zarnuji or Burhan al-Islam al-Zarnuji also spelled az-Zarnuji (d. 620 AH/1223 CE) was a Muslim scholar and the author of the celebrated pedagogical work Ta'līm al-Muta'allim-Ṭarīq at-Ta'-allum (Instruction of the Student: The Method of Learning).

Life

Al-Zarnuj was born and lived in Zarnuj, a well-known town beyond the river Oxus in the present Turkistan Region of Kazakhstan. Burhan al-Din (proof of Din) or Burhan al-Islam (proof of Islam) al-Zarnuji were his agnomen, or moniker. Collections of biographies believed that his given name was al-Nu'man ibn Ibrahim.

He studied with many shaykhs including: Shaykh Burhān al-Dīn ‘Alī ibn Abī Bakr al-Marghīnānī (530–593 AH / 1135–1197 CE) author of Al-Hidāyah, Shaykh Abu al-Muhamid Qawaduddin Hammad ibn Ibrahim al-Saffar; the great Shaykh Hasan ibn Mansur Qadiykhani; and others.

The exact date of his death is unknown, though it is speculated that he died in 620 AH (1223 CE) in Bukhara.

Works

Al-Zarnuji's treatise, Ta'līm al-Muta'allim-Ṭarīq at-Ta'-allum, is a short introduction to the secrets of attaining knowledge. Acknowledged by many^{[citation needed]} as a book in which even the most advanced and experienced teachers find advice they have yet to apply in their teaching, this book serves to create the proper^{[citation needed]} framework for the Sharia program and its students and teachers alike.