TAFTĀZĀNĪ, AL- (AH 722–791?/1322–1389 CE), more fully Saʿd al-Dīn Masʿūd ibn ʿUmar al-Taftāzānī; master of a range of intellectual disciplines including theology, philosophy, metaphysics, logic, grammar, and rhetoric, as well as fundamental principles of jurisprudence and Qurʾanic exegesis. Born in Taftāzān, Khorasan, he is renowned for the breadth and quality of his scholarship, though little is known about his personal life. His writing career started at the age of sixteen, and before his death his works were known and studied from the eastern part of the Muslim world to Egypt in the West. Al-Taftāzānī's eminence in scholarship was noticed and recognized in his lifetime by the Mongol rulers, especially the famous Timur Lenk (Tamerlane), by whom he was personally honored.

Al-Taftāz...