Abstract
The Banu¯ Jama¯ 'a were an eminent family of Sha¯ fi'i¯jurists, three of whose members became chief judges of Egypt, holding office for 61 out of 92 years between 1291 and 1383. Meanwhile, the Jerusalem branch of the family provided the preachers for the Aqsa¯ Mosque. They formed part of a new Arab Muslim noblesse de robe in the Mamlu¯ k State, rising suddenly from an obscure provincial background in the central Syrian town of Hama¯ . This article traces the fortunes of the Banu¯ Jama¯ 'a under the Mamlu¯ k sultans and asks what happened to their descendants after the Ottoman conquest. It explores, in particular, the vicissitudes of a line of the family established as Sha¯ fi'i¯, and later as Hanafi¯, jurists in Damascus from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries, contrasting their position with that of their distinguished ancestors.
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