Family and early life
Isma’il ibn Sawdakin ibn Abd Allah, Abu Tahir al-Nuri, was named al-Nuri through his association with Nur al-Din Mahmud ibn Zangi. His father was one of Nur al-Din’s freedmen, a good and upright man who lived in Egypt. His son Isma’il was born there in 578 or 579 AH and grew up in an atmosphere of goodness and piety.
Learning and teachers
He devoted himself to learning, hearing hadith and studying the sayings of the Sufis. He moved with his father to Aleppo, inclined towards the Sufis, associated with them and benefited from their teaching.
In Cairo he heard Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Yusuf al-Ghaznawi, and in Aleppo Ibrahim ibn Uthman ibn Dirbas al-Mazini. The narrator of the notice says that Isma’il transmitted from both of them in Aleppo. He also heard there Iftikhar al-Din Abu Hashim Abd al-Muttalib ibn al-Fadl ibn Abd al-Muttalib al-Hashimi and Abu Muhammad Abd al-Rahman ibn Abd Allah ibn Alwan al-Asadi.
With Ibn al-Arabi
He accompanied the shaykh Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ali Ibn al-Arabi for a time and copied many of his writings from him. He was a learned jurist, a transmitter of hadith and a poet. He composed fine verse and spoke on Sufism. He was of good character, pleasant company and gentle disposition.
Death in Aleppo
Abu Tahir Isma’il ibn Sawdakin died in Aleppo a few days after returning from a visit to Jerusalem. The notice places his death before sunrise on Wednesday, 23 Safar 646 AH. He was buried before noon in a burial ground he had established near Mashhad al-Du’a outside Bab al-Nasr. His age was then sixty-seven.