Sayyid Jafar al-Barzanji جعفر بن حسن البرزنجي

Sayyid Jafar ibn Hasan al-Barzanji rahimahullah (1128-1177 AH / 1716-1764 CE) was a Madinan scholar of the twelfth Islamic century whose family had migrated to Madina from Kurdish-Iraqi origins. In Madina he became one of the foremost authorities of the Shafii school and served as its mufti. He composed the Mawlid al-Barzanji, a blend of narrative prose and rhymed couplets recited communally, which traces the prophetic story from the noble lineage and the primordial lights that preceded the Prophet ﷺ, through his birth, upbringing, mission, night journey, and passing. The text became the most widely circulated prose mawlid in Sunni Islam, forming the centerpiece of mawlid gatherings among Hadrami communities, in West Africa, the Levant, and across Southeast Asia. Beyond this celebrated text, al-Barzanji produced works in fiqh and hadith, cementing his standing as a scholar of breadth.