(Adapted from al-Durr al-Thamin p.89-90)
He is Abu Yaqub, Mamluk Ali ibn Sh. Ahmad Ali bin Ghulam Sharaf al-Tabib Ibn Sh. Abdullah al-Tayyib al-Siddiqi al-Nanotwi, one of the major and well known teachers in his time, described as ‘Ustadh al-Kull’. He traces his lineage back to Qasim bin Muhammad bin Abi Abi Bakr al-Siddiq (Allah be pleased with him).
Sh. Mamluk was born in Nanotwa which is in the vicinity of Saharanpur, where he studied for some time before travelling to Dehli. There he studied most of the works of the Islamic sciences from the great scholar Mawlana Rashid al-Din Khan al-Dehlawi who was regarded as one of the most able students of Sh. Shah Abd al-Aziz al-Dehlawi.
Sh. Mamluk is recorded to have had achieved mastery in a number of the Islamic sciences, such that leadership of teaching in his time was said to rest with him. The Sheikh took up a teaching position in the Madrassah Dar al-Baqa in Dehli.
From amongst his students were figures such as Mawlana’s Gangohi and Nanotwi, whilst his son went on to be the head of the scholars of hadith at Dar al-Ulum Deoband.
The Sheikh travelled to the Hijaz in the year 1258 where he performed the pilgrimage and visitation returning to India a year later. He (Allah have mercy on him) passed away on the 11th of Dhul Hijjah in 1267 after having fallen ill eleven days earlier.
For further details refer to: Nuzhat al-Khawatir (7/534) and Awjaz al-Masalik (1/148)