Shihab al-Din al-Qarafi

Shihāb al-Dīn Abu ’l-Abbās Aḥmad ibn Abi ’l-ʿAlāʾ Idrīs ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn Yallīn al-Ṣanhājī al-Ṣaʿīdī al-Bahfashīmī al-Būshī al-Bahnasī al-Miṣrī al-Mālikī, was a Sunni Islamic scholar of Sanhaja Berber origin who lived in Ayyubid and Mamluk Egypt. He is widely regarded as the foremost Maliki juristconsult and legal theoretician of his time. He was highly proficient in scriptural exegesis, Islamic theology, grammar, lexicography, literature, ophthalmology, astronomy and mathematics. During his lifetime, al-Qarafi was hailed as one of the greatest scholars. He is considered to be one of the prominent influential thinkers and pioneers. According to Ibn Farhun, Shafi'ites and Malikites were unanimous that the best scholars in Egypt were three in number: al-Qarafi in Old Cairo, Ibn al-Munayyir in Alexandria, and Ibn Daqiq al-'Id in Fatimid Cairo. Imam al-Suyuti counted him among the scholars who attained the rank of mujtahid mutlaq.