Jamāl al-Dīn Abī ʿAmr ʿUthmān b. ʿUmar b. Abī Bakr, known as Ibn al-Ḥājib, was a Mālikī jurist and grammarian. He was of Kurdish ancestry. Born in upper Egypt at the village of Asnā around 570/1174-5, he studied the Islamic sciences in Cairo, where he also taught for a period of time. He then moved to Damascus, teaching Mālikī law at the Great Umayyad Mosque. He returned to Egypt after being expelled from Damascus, where he died in 646/1249. He returned to Egypt (n 80061791) after being expelled from Damascus (n 79143055), where he died in 646/1249. Ibn al-Ḥājib was recognized for his mastery of the epitome (mukhtaṣar) form of writing, wherein complex ideas were condensed into brief statements. The epitome was usually combined with a commentary. Ibn al-Ḥājib wrote two widely-circulated epitomes on grammar, along with a well-known epitome on Mālikī law which later commentators, not all of whom were Mālikī, commented on. In the field of grammar, he wrote al-Shāfiyya on morphology, and al-Kāfiyya on syntax. His other well-known work, titled Muntahā ’l-suʾāl wa l-amal fī ʿilmay al-uṣūl wa l-jadal, addresses Mālikī law and forms of disputation (jadal). He condensed the work into an epitome (titled Mukhtaṣar al-muntahā), which became the subject of many various commentaries and super-commentaries in later centuries.