Who is al-Suyooti?

 

Who is 'asooyoti'? And what is 'alhawi lil fatwa'? 
Also a brother says that in Volume 2 under the section masbaha - it is advised to use the beads to count instead of using the fingers? Is this true? 

Praise be to Allaah.

Al-Suyooti is al-Haafiz ‘Abd al-Rahmaan ibn al-Kamaal
Abi Bakr ibn Muhammad ibn Saabiq al-Deen ibn al-Fakhr ibn ‘Uthmaan al-Suyooti.
His nickname was Jalaal al-Deen and his patronymic was Abu’l-Fadl. He
was born in 849 AH and grew up as an orphan. He memorized the Qur’aan
before he was eight years old and was active in seeking knowledge from an early
age. He travelled extensively in the pursuit of knowledge, and went to Syria,
the Hijaaz, India and the Maghreb (north Africa). He wrote many books on various
branches of knowledge, including Tafseer (Qur’aanic commentary), hadeeth,
fiqh (jurisprudence), biographies and history. He worked hard in compiling material,
and because he collected so much, his books contain saheeh (sound), da’eef
(weak) and mawdoo’ (fabricated) reports, and both true and false material. 

It was said that he wrote nearly 600 books. He died (may
Allaah have mercy on him) in 911 AH. 

With regard to using the masbahah (beads),
please see Question # 3009