شهاب الدين محمود الآلوسي

al-Alusi (RH)

Shihab al-Din Mahmud al-Alusi

Also known as: Alusi, al-Aloosi, Abu al-Thana' al-Alusi

1217–1270 AH · 1802–1854 CE

Sufism & Theology Theology Fiqh

Mufti of Baghdad and author of Ruh al-Ma'ani, one of the great commentaries on the Quran.

Al-Alusi was born in Baghdad to a family of scholars and began teaching in his teens. He was appointed the Hanafi mufti of Baghdad in 1833, although he had been raised in the Shafi'i school, and he weighed the views of both schools in his rulings. He also followed the Naqshbandi path. He lost the post in 1847 amid the politics of Ottoman Baghdad, and later travelled to Istanbul to present his tafsir to the Ottoman court, returning to Baghdad shortly before his death.

His Ruh al-Ma'ani fi Tafsir al-Qur'an al-'Azim wa al-Sab' al-Mathani, written over some fifteen years, draws together grammar, rhetoric, the readings, hadith, law and theology from the earlier commentaries, and adds the inner (ishari) meanings drawn out by the Sufis. It remains one of the most widely used commentaries. His descendants, among them his son Nu'man and his grandson Mahmud Shukri, carried on the family's scholarship.

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