The death of Imam Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti

The hafiz Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti — author of more than six hundred works in tafsir, hadith, language and history, among them "al-Itqan," "al-Jamiʿ al-Saghir" and "Tafsir al-Jalalayn" — died in Cairo.

al-Suyuti was born in 849 AH and grew up an orphan in Cairo. He memorized the Qur'an before the age of eight, and pursued knowledge until he said of himself: I was granted deep mastery of seven sciences, and he issued fatwas and taught at twenty years of age.

He wrote more than six hundred works between books and treatises, among them "al-Itqan fi ʿUlum al-Qur'an," "al-Durr al-Manthur," "Tadrib al-Rawi," "Tarikh al-Khulafaʾ" and "al-Muzhir," and completed "Tafsir al-Jalalayn," begun by his teacher Jalal al-Din al-Mahalli.

Late in life he withdrew from people on the Rawda island of the Nile, writing and worshipping, and refused gifts and offices, until he died on 19 Jumada al-Ula 911 AH and was buried in Hush Qawsun outside Bab al-Qarafa in Cairo.