Najm al-Din al-Nasafi

Abu Hafs Umar al-Nasafi, known by the honorific title Najm al-Din ("Star of the Faith"), was a scholar of Transoxiana — the region beyond the Oxus River, in present-day Uzbekistan. Sources place his birth in 461 AH (1068 CE) in Nasaf (Nakhshab, modern Qarshi) and his death in 537 AH (1142 CE) in Samarqand. He followed the Hanafi school of law (fiqh) and the Maturidi school of theology (kalam), the two dominant Sunni traditions of Central Asia.

Tradition credits him with around a hundred works across law, Qur'anic exegesis (tafsir), hadith, theology and history, though only some survive. He is best remembered for a brief creed, al-Aqa'id al-Nasafiyya ("The Nasafi Articles of Faith"), a compact statement of Maturidi-Sunni doctrine that condenses earlier Hanafi creedal writing. Its lasting fame owes much to a celebrated commentary written two centuries later by al-Taftazani (d. 1390); together, text and commentary became standard in madrasa curricula across the Sunni world.

Reports note that he taught in the mosques and schools of Samarqand and trained many students; one biographical tradition names the jurist al-Marghinani, author of the legal manual al-Hidaya, among them. He is said to have made the pilgrimage to Mecca around 1113-1114, traveling by way of Baghdad. Where the sources are silent on details of his daily life, this account stays silent too.