Ibn Tawq
Shihāb al-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad, called Ibn Ṭawq, was a Muslim notary and diarist from Damascus.
Life
Ibn Ṭawq was born in 1430 into a peasant family from the village of Jayrūd outside Damascus. He also held land in the predominantly Christian village of Maʿlūlā. In Damascus, he lived near the in the quarter of Sūq Ṣārūjā just north of the Bāb al-Salāma gate to Old Damascus. His mother's family was from Damascus. In 1498, he moved to Maʿlūlā, where he stayed for at least a year and a half whie his wife remained in Damascus.Ibn Ṭawq belonged to the middle class, owned an orchard and several female slaves. He was a court clerk and notary. He adhered to the Shāfiʿī school of law, but did not hesitate to seek justice from a Ḥanbalī judge. He was just prominent enough to make it into the biographical dictionary of Najm al-Dīn al-Ghazzī, who describes him as a shaykh, imām, ʿālim and muḥaddith.
Ibn Ṭawq was married twice. With his first wife, he had a son and two daughters. His second wife, who belonged to a prominent family, had a daughter from a previous marriage. At one point he divorced and remarried her on account of an oath he took. They had five daughters who died in childhood and one son.
Ibn Ṭawq died in 1509.