Qadi Abu Shuja al-Isfahani أحمد بن الحسين بن أحمد الأصفهاني، أبو شجاع

Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn Ahmad al-Isfahani, known by his kunya Abu Shuja and honored as Qadi, was born in 434 AH / 1042 CE in Basra. He was a Shafiʿi in law, remembered as a jurist, judge, and a man of piety and restraint. For roughly four decades he taught the jurisprudence of Imam al-Shafiʿi in Basra, instructing its people in the rulings of the school, before settling in Madina, where he gave his final years to the service of the Prophet's Mosque. His lasting legacy rests on one short work, the Ghayat al-Ikhtisar, also titled Matn Abi Shuja and Ghayat al-Taqrib. Written as a concise primer covering purification, prayer, fasting, zakat, hajj, transactions, marriage, and the other chapters of Shafiʿi fiqh, it became one of the most widely taught introductory texts in the school. Generations of students have memorized it, and it has drawn a long line of commentaries, among them al-Iqnaʿ of al-Khatib al-Shirbini and the gloss of al-Bayjuri, keeping the matn in active study to the present day. Reports of his death differ sharply. Some place it around 488 AH, others as late as c. 593 AH / 1197 CE, the latter implying an unusually long life. Historians have not settled the question, and the matter is best stated plainly as disputed.