Ibn Kathir al-Dimashqi

Abu al-Fida Imad al-Din Ismail ibn Umar ibn Kathir al-Qurashi al-Dimashqi (إسماعيل بن عمر بن كثير القرشي الدمشقي أبو الفداء عماد الدين), better known as Ibn Kathir, was one of the most influential scholars of hadith and scholars of tafsir in Islamic intellectual history. He was born in Bosra (located in present-day Syria) during the Mamluk Sultanate c. 1300 and died in Damascus in 1373. His most famous works include the eponymous hadith/Israiliyat-based Tafsir Ibn Kathir (published in English as a heavily abridged and edited translation), the 14-volume hadith/Israiliyat-based historical and apocalyptic work Al-Bidayah wal-Nihaya (literally "The Beginning and the End"), and the still widely-read Qisas al-Anbiya (translated into English as Stories of the Prophets).