Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra explained

Tabaqat al-Shāfi'iyya al-Kubra
Author:	Taj al-Din al-Subki
Editors:	and Mustafa 'Abd al-Qadir 'Ata
Title Orig:	طبقات الشافعية الكبرى
Orig Lang Code:	ar
Country:	Egypt during the Mamluk rule
Language:	Arabic
Subject:	Tabaqat, Biography, Islamic history, Arabic literature, Kalam, Sufism
Publisher:	Al-Matba'a al-Husayniyya al-Masriyya, 1906 Matba'at 'Isa al-Babi al-Halabi, 1964 Dar Ihya' al-Kutub al-'Arabiyya, 1976 Dar Hajar, 1992 , 1999
Pub Date:	1906
Isbn:	9782745128560
Preceded By:	Jam' al-Jawami' (The Collection of Collections)
Followed By:	Mu'id al-Ni'am wa Mubid al-Niqam (The Restorer of Favours and the Restrainer of Chastisements)
Native Wikisource:	طبقات الشافعية الكبرى
Website:	www.al-ilmiyah.com/details?id=978-2-7451-2856-0

Tabaqat al-Shāfi'iyya al-Kubra (Arabic: طبقات الشافعية الكبرى|lit=The Major Classes/Generations of the Shafi'is) is a voluminous encyclopedic biographical dictionary written by the Shafi'i-Ash'ari scholar Taj al-Din al-Subki (d. 771/1370), in which he presents biographies of scholars of the Shafi'i legal school in Sunni Islam, from the time of Muhammad ibn Idris al-Shafi'i (d. 204/820) all the way to his own contemporary time.^[1] ^[2]

The work also chronicles the history of the Ash'ari school of thought, since its beginning with Abu al-Hasan al-Ash'ari (d. 324/936) all the way to Taj al-Din al-Subki's own era; because most of the Ash'ari scholars are following the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence.^[3]

Content

The work is divided into seven classes (tabaqat), as follows:^[4]

Those who were students (disciples) of Imam al-Shafi'i (d. 204/820), the founder of the Shafi'i school.
Those who died between 200 AH and 300 AH.
Those who died between 300 AH and 400 AH.
Those who died between 400 AH and 500 AH.
Those who died between 500 AH and 600 AH.
Those who died between 600 AH and 700 AH.
Those who died after 700 AH.

In the last volume, al-Subki devotes about 150 pages to his own father, Shaykh al-Islam Taqi al-Din al-Subki (d. 756/1355).^[4]

Taj al-Din al-Subki wrote three different works on this same subject, a large work entitled, 'Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra', a more summarized edition called, 'Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Wusta', and the most shortened edition called, 'Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Sughra'. These tabaqat (“classes” or “generations”) of scholars by him have the fame of being the best biographies of Shafi'i scholars ever written.^[4]