al-Anṣārī, Zakariyyāʾ - Encyclopaedia of Islam, THREE
[Article]
McGregor, Richard J.
Leiden
Brill
(1,316 words)
Zakariyyāʾ al-Anṣārī , Shaykh al-Islām, Muḥammad b. Aḥmad al-Sunaykī al-Miṣrī al-Shāfiʿī, Egyptian jurisprudent and mystic, died in Cairo 926/1520. He was born of humble stock in the countryside of the Egyptian province of al-Sharqiyya and travelled to Cairo in his youth in search of an education. His intelligence and zeal led him to al-Azhar University, where he studied under such prominent figures as the Shāfiʿī scholar Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī (d. 852/1449) and the Qurʾān commentator Jalāl al-Dīn al-Maḥallī (d.