Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani

Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (1372–1449), born Ahmad ibn Ali in Cairo, was the foremost Shafi'i scholar and hadith master of his age. Orphaned in infancy, he was sent to study the Qur'an at five and had memorised it by nine. In 1397 he married Uns Khatun.

He produced roughly 150 works, above all Fath al-Bari, his classic commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari, which earned him the epithet Hafiz of the Time. When he died in Cairo in 1449, the Abbasid caliph led his funeral prayer and about fifty thousand mourners attended.