Imam Kamal al-Din al-Damiri كمال الدين أبو البقاء محمد بن موسى الدميري

Imam Kamal al-Din Abu al-Baqa Muhammad b. Musa al-Damiri rahimahullah (742-808 AH / 1341-1405 CE) was a distinguished Egyptian Shafii jurist and polymath of the late Mamluk era. His principal legal work is al-Najm al-Wahhaj fi Sharh al-Minhaj, a ten-volume commentary on al-Nawawi's Minhaj al-Talibin - the central matn of the Shafii madhhab. Minhaj al-Talibin is itself an abridgment of al-Rafi'i's al-Muharrar, and al-Damiri's commentary unfolds it with close attention to technical legal vocabulary, juristic principles, and the positions of the Shafii school. Although less widely cited than the later commentaries of Ibn Hajar al-Haytami (Tuhfat al-Muhtaj) and al-Ramli (Nihayat al-Muhtaj), al-Najm al-Wahhaj is a major reference within the Shafii commentarial tradition. Al-Damiri is equally celebrated for Hayat al-Hayawan al-Kubra, the Islamic world's most comprehensive medieval encyclopedia of animal life. He also composed Manzumat Rumuz al-Kunuz, a four-volume poetic mnemonic covering Shafii fiqh principles.