al-Hasan ibn Umar al-Kurdi
- Died
- 720 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Umar al-Kurdi (c. 630–720 AH / 1232–1320 CE) was a Syrian-born hadith transmitter and Quran reciter who settled in Giza, Egypt, sought after in his later years for his elevated chains of transmission.
Early life and education
Al-Hasan ibn Umar ibn Isa ibn Khalil ibn Ibrahim al-Kurdi, also bearing the kunya Abu Muhammad, was born in Damascus at Turbat Umm al-Salih. His birth was reported as Thursday, 20 Dhu al-Hijjah 630 AH, while another account relayed from him gives Dhu al-Hijjah 629 AH. His father served as a caretaker and attendant at Turbat Umm al-Salih and brought him during his childhood to study under prominent scholars of Damascus.
He heard hadith from Ibn al-Latti, Mukram, and al-Hasan ibn Salim ibn Sallam. Under the scholar of Quranic recitation Abu al-Hasan al-Sakhawi, he completed three full recitations of the Quran according to the transmissions of al-Duri and al-Susi, as well as a combined reading, and also heard several hadith transmissions from him.
Life in Egypt and transmission
Al-Kurdi subsequently relocated to Egypt and settled in Giza, where he earned a living selling paper from a shop near the mosque gate and served as the muezzin at the Mu'izziyyah Mosque. For many decades he lived out of public view as a narrator, though students searching through older audition records in Damascus and Cairo had noticed his name. Around 712–713 AH, hadith scholars traced him through an audition certificate in his possession and flocked to him in Giza to receive his narrations.
In his advanced age, al-Kurdi suffered from impaired hearing, making narration difficult; the jurist Taqi al-Din al-Subki prompted him over six sessions to dictate narrations from the compilation of Ibn al-Sammak. The historian Ibn Rafi' described him in 720 AH as the surviving authority of high transmission and prolific narration in the region, noting that he was the last surviving narrator in Egypt to transmit directly from several of his Damascene teachers.
Death
Al-Kurdi died in Giza on 3 Rabi' al-Thani 720 AH (1320 CE), at the age of approximately ninety.
Answer updated
List of Works
This short hadith collection features fifty-eight narrations extracted and organized to document elevated transmissions received through the transmitter Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Umar al-Kurdi. In addition to prophetic reports covering legal rulings, moral virtues, and eschatological matters, the compilation includes non-prophetic traditions and exhortations.