The great scholar, jurist, author, Qārī and master of the Naqshbandī Order, Shaykh Shahāb ad-Dīn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Dimyāṭī Shāfiʿī Miṣrī, popular as Bannā, was probably the first shaykh of the Naqshbandī Path in Egypt.
He was born in the town of Dimyāṭ, Egypt, where he learned Islamic sciences from the eminent scholars and memorized the Holy Qurʾān. He traveled to Cairo where he learned from many distinguished scholars there.
Then he traveled to the Holy Cities and performed Ḥajj. He met many scholars there and learned from them as well. These include Shaykh Ibrāhīm ibn Ḥasan al-Shahrazūrī al-Kūrānī Shāfiʿī (1101H).
In his second journey to Makkah, he performed the Ḥajj again, and then traveled on to Yemen, where he met a great Naqshbandī master named Shaykh Abu’l-Wafā Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿIjīl al-Yamanī (983-1074H), who taught him the Spiritual Path of the Naqshbandī Order and authorized him as deputy. Ibn ʿIjīl was probably a deputy of Shaykh Tāj ad-Dīn ʿUthmānī Dahlawī, deputy of Khwāja Bāqī Billāh Dahlawī.
By the orders of his shaykh, he returned to Egypt where he established himself as a spiritual guide. He was also a great Qārī and has written a book in the science of fourteen recitations of the Qurʾān. He also wrote some books in jurisprudence and theology.
This great sun of spirituality passed away on 3 Muḥarram 1117 AH (1705) in Madīnah and was buried in the Baqīʿ graveyard.