Ḥābis al-Ṣaʿdī, Shams al-Dīn Aḥmad b. Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad b. Ḥābis (d. 1061/1651) was a Zaydī jurist (faqīh), theologian (mutakallim) and judge (qāḍī) in Yemen. His date of birth is not mentioned in the sources, but since he wrote a commentary on al-Takmila li al-aḥkām in 1019/1610 when he was aged 18, his birth can be dated to ca. 1001/1593 (Ibn Abī al-Rijāl, 1/510–511; see below).

Ḥābis was born in Ṣaʿda (near Ṣanʿāʾ) into a learned family from the clan of Banū Ḥābis, one of the branches of the Banū al-Dawwārī, hence he was called al-Dawwārī. Ḥābis’s father was o…