Khalil ibn Ishaq al-Jundi

Khalil ibn Ishaq al-Jundi (Diya al-Din Khalil ibn Ishaq) was a jurist (faqih) of the Maliki madhhab — one of Sunni Islam's four schools of law — active in Egypt under the Mamluk sultanate. His birth date is not recorded; he is generally said to have died in 776 AH (1374 CE), though a minority of sources give 767 AH (c. 1365 CE), so the date is best treated as disputed. The nickname al-Jundi ("the soldier") reflects a tradition that he served as a soldier and continued to wear military dress throughout his scholarly life. He studied in Cairo, reportedly learning Maliki jurisprudence from the teacher Abd Allah al-Manufi and Arabic and the principles of religion from other masters. He taught fiqh, hadith, and language — a number of sources place him at Cairo's prestigious Shaykhuniyya college — and is reported to have taught at Medina as well, though that itinerary rests on later biographical tradition. His enduring achievement is the Mukhtasar ("the Epitome"), a tightly compressed manual that distils the dominant rulings of the Maliki school into a single reference. It became the school's standard teaching and reference text and generated a vast commentary literature; in much of North and West Africa it is regarded as the most authoritative practical handbook of Maliki law. He is also credited with al-Tawdih, a commentary on Ibn al-Hajib's legal work.