Abu al-Mahasin al-Husayni
- Died
- 765 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Abu al-Mahasin al-Husayni (715–765 AH / 1315–1364 CE) was a Damascene Shafi'i hadith master, biographer, and historian, known for his biographical continuations and compilations on hadith transmitters.
Lineage and Early Life
He was Shams al-Din Abu al-Mahasin Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Hasan ibn Hamza ibn Abi al-Mahasin Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Husayni al-Dimashqi al-Shafi'i. As an aristocratic descendant of the Prophet ﷺ (sharif), his lineage traced back to al-Husayn ibn Ali ibn Abi Talib through Ja'far al-Sadiq. He was born in Damascus in Sha'ban 715 AH (c. October–November 1315 CE).
Education and Career
Al-Husayni undertook rigorous studies in hadith and narrator criticism, transcribing an extensive number of manuscripts in his own hand. In Syria, he heard hadith from al-Mizzi, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Abd al-Da'im, Ahmad ibn Ali al-Jazari, and Zaynab bint al-Kamal. He traveled to Egypt, where he studied under Abu al-Fath al-Maydumi and others, eventually compiling a personal index (mu'jam) documenting his numerous teachers.
In Damascus, al-Husayni was appointed to the directorship of hadith instruction (mashyakha) at Dar al-Hadith al-Baha'iyya, located inside Bab Tuma. He also served as a certified legal witness for estate and inheritance matters (shahid al-mawarith) in the city.
His major scholarly contributions focused on hadith transmitter evaluation and generational history. He authored Dhayl Tadhkirat al-Huffaz, a chronological continuation to the biographical compendium of al-Dhahabi, and compiled al-Tadhkira fi Rijal al-Ashara, an abridgment and expansion of biographical data for narrators across major hadith collections.
Scholarly Standing
Al-Husayni earned high praise from contemporary and later authorities. In al-Mu'jam al-Mukhtass, his teacher al-Dhahabi described him as an erudite jurist and hadith scholar who constantly advanced in compilation, text extraction, and scholarly benefit. Ibn Nasir al-Din al-Dimashqi commended him as a trustworthy hadith critic, historian of great stature, and a man of upright character. al-Shawkani noted that despite his relatively early death, he ranked among the finest of the later hadith masters.
Death
Al-Husayni died in middle age at the end of Sha'ban 765 AH (c. June 1364 CE) at the age of fifty; another report places his death in Ramadan of the same year.
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Ikmal fi Dhikr man Lahu Riwaya fi Musnad al-Imam Ahmad min al-Rijal is a biographical dictionary of hadith transmitters. It compiles the biographies of transmitters found in Ahmad ibn Hanbal's Musnad Ahmad who were omitted from al-Mizzi's Tahdhib al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal, serving as a dedicated biographical supplement for these additional narrators.
Dhayl Tadhkirat al-Huffaz is a biographical dictionary of Hadith scholars arranged as a chronological continuation to Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi's Tadhkirat al-Huffaz. Following a generation-based framework, it records entries for hadith masters and scholars who flourished after the scope of the original compendium.