Muhammad Ibn Muhammad Al-Fulani Al-Kishwani

Muḥammad b. Muḥammad al-Kashnāwī al-Sudānī al-Danrankāwī al-Mālikī al-Ashʿarī was an 18th century Sunni Muslim Fulani polymath from the Katsina Kingdom in present-day Nigeria. He had a broad field of study, specialising in esotericism and the occult sciences, numerology, logic, Arabic grammar, and astronomy. After receiving extensive education from notable scholars in his native Hausaland, al-Kashnawi travelled across the Islamic world to continue his search for knowledge, finally settling down in Cairo. His most celebrated work, al-Durr al-manzum, established him as a major authority on the secret sciences and influenced prominent scholars throughout the Islamic world, among them Murtada al-Zabidi, and Hassan and Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti, the latter of whom had written his biography. His works are still being distributed across the Islamic world, especially through Cairo bookshops.

Biography Muhammad b. Muhammad's year of birth remains unknown though it is generally accepted that he was born in Katsina, and most probably in the town of Kurmin Dan Ranko (in present-day Malumfashi, Katsina State, Nigeria ), given his nisba, al-Danrankāwī. As a result, vibrant centres of learning increased in size and number, the most famous of which was Yandoto. Another of these famous scholarly towns was al-Kashnawi's Dan Ranko, located in southern Katsina. The town remained noted for its scholarship until the early 19th century. When its scholars rejected the Sokoto jihad, Muhammad Bello led an army to sack and destroy the town. An account notes that after the battle, pages from books were seen blowing in the wind. The scholarly town of Yandoto also faced a similar fate.

Education Dan Ranko's thriving intellectual community allowed al-Kashnawi early contact with subjects such as literary and linguistic, historical, mathematical, philosophical, medical and astronomical, as well as the esoteric and occult sciences which he would later develop a great interest in, including other areas of ṭaṣawwuf. His studies in the classical disciplines included the Qur’an, hadith, theology and fiqh. According to al-Jabarti, al-Kashnawi was "so proficient in these subjects that his shaykh (Fudu) used to call him 'Sibawayh', [and] connoisseur of prosimetric verse." The well-travelled journey across the continent to the Hijaz was a long and arduous one, which was physically and financially intense. Al-Jabarti records that indeed it was from al-Kashnawi that his father "learned the art of numerical and literal magic squares and the art of fractions." Even today, al-Kashnawi's works are still being reproduced and sold in the city's book market.

Al-Kashnawi never returned to Katsina for reasons that remain unknown, and died in the home of Hassan al-Jabarti in 1741/2. He left all his manuscripts to his friend, who also oversaw the management of the rest of his estate and presided over his funeral. Al-Kashnawi was buried in Cairo's Bustān al-ʿUlamāʾ, a cemetery in al-Muhawirin "reserved for the most dignified of scholars".

Works Today, al-Kashnawi's eight works in total are known, mostly through Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti. However, there were likely more as he had an extensive collection of manuscripts, many of them copies of other works. Al-Kashnawi once described his process:One of the ways in which God bestowed favor upon me was that I never read anything in a loaned book. The least I did when I wanted to read a book which I did not own was to copy its text, leaving space between the lines to write whatever comment I wanted, or for the remarks of my shaykh when he was teaching it. When I was more ambitious, I would copy out the commentary and gloss also.

In his dictionary of Maliki scholars, , also notes of al-Kashnawi having "had a long hand [kānat lahu yadin tūlā] in most sciences and complete knowledge of the subtleties [daqāʾiq] of secrets and illuminations [al-anwār]."

Two of his works, a travelogue and compendium of authorities, are known to have been lost. Another entitled Al-Taḥrīrāt al-rā’iqah (concerning the Prophet’s state and his deeds after death) is not listed in al-Jabarti's listing nor is it noted in other Arabic dictionaries, but it is reported by Carl Brockelmann who dates it to May 1743, which if so, cannot be attributed to al-Kashnawi, as he died two years before. The other works include:

Bulūgh al-arab min kalām al-ʿarab: a work on Arabic grammar dated to around 1736-7. Bughyat al-mawālī fī tarjamat Muḥammad al-Wālī: a biography of his teacher the renowned Muhammad al-Nawali al-Barnawi. Manḥ al-quddū: a didactic poem on logic drawn from the Mukhtaṣar of al-Sanūsī. Izālat al-‘ubū ‘an wajh minaḥ al-quddūs: an extensive commentary on the Mukhtaṣar of al-Sanūsī. Durar al-yawāqīt fī ‘ilm al-ḥurūf wa’l asmā’ (completed on 6 September 1734): a major treatise and commentary on al-durr wa’l-tiryāq of Abd al-Rahman al-Jurjanī. Bahjat al-āfāq wa īdāḥ al-lubs wa’l-ighlāq fī ‘ilm al-hurūf wa’l-awfāq (completed on 29 January 1733): a major numerological treatise on magic squares. Al-Durr al-manẓūm wa khulāṣat al-sirr al-maktūm fī ‘ilm al-ṭalāsim wa’l-nujūm (completed on 20 December 1733): his famous treatise dealing with three domains of the "secret sciences" (astral magic, talismanology, and nīrandj). The work is an abridged commentary on another famous astrological treatise attributed to Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī (d. 1209), al-Sirr al-maktūm fī mukhāṭabāt al-nujūm.