He is ʾImām ʾAbū ʿAbdillāh Sadīd ad-Dīn Muḥammad ʾIbn Muḥammad ʾIbn ʿAlī al-Kāshgharī r.

He grew up in a town called Kashghar. It is a city in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous region in China’s far west. It is a town mentioned by Yāqūt in Muʿjam al-Buldān, that he travelled to it from Samarkand. He said: “It is in the middle of the land of the Turks.” Likewise he mentioned its inhabitants are Muslims. The following people were attributed to this town:

1. Muḥammad ʾIbn al-Ḥasan al-Kāshgharī r (d. 550 A.H.)
2. Al-Ḥusayn ʾIbn ʿAlī al-Kāshgharī r (d. 484 A.H.)

Today this town is in Western Turkistan by the Tarim River, close to the western borders of Eastern Turkistan.

No one wrote the date of his birth.

The ʾImām r excelled in various sciences foremost among them being Jurisprudence (fiqh), Grammar (Naḥw), Language (Lughaħ), Exegesis (Tafsīr) and the Prophetic Biography (Sīraħ), to the point that as-Suyūṭī r attributed him with the title “Grammarian” (Naḥwī).

Al-Kāshgharī r was known for travelling across countries. He resided in Makkaħ for fourteen years, and entered Yemen then resided in Taʿizz.

He compiled many works, from them are:

1. Mukhtaṣar ʾUsd al-Ghābaħ fī Maʿrifaħ al-Ṣaḥābaħ (An Abridgement of the Lions of the Cave on the Knowledge of the Companions), and it is written in Chester Beatty Library, no. 3213.
2. Majmaʿ al-Gharaʾib wa Manbaʿ al-ʿAjāʾib (The Assembly of the Marvel and the Spring of the Wonders) in four volumes.
3. Munyaħ al-Muṣallī wa Ghunyaħ al-Mubtadī (The Aim of the Pray-er and Affluence of the Beginner); ʾIbn ʾAmīr Ḥājj Muḥammad ʾIbn Muḥammad ʾIbn ʾAḥmad r (d. 879 A.H.) commented on it, and named it Ḥalbaħ al-Mujallī wa Bughyaħ wal-Muhtadī fi Sharḥ Munyaħ al-Muṣallī (The Arena of the Winner and the Desire of the Rightly-Guided on the Commentary of the Affluence of the Beginner). Likewise ʿUmar ʾIbn Sulaymān r (d. 1075 A.H.) commented on it. Qarh Yaḥyā aṣ-Ṣārūkhānī r commented on it too.
4. Ṭulbaħ aṭ-Ṭalabaħ fī Ṭarīq al-ʿIlm liman Ṭalabah (The Odyssey of the Students on the Path of Knowledge for Those Who Seek It).
5. Tāj as-Saʿādaħ (The Crown of Felicity).
6. Kitāb as-Siyāqāt (The Book of Driving).

Al-Kāshgharī r passed away at the coast of Mawzaʿ in Yemen in the year of 705 A.H.