al-Kuzbari

Abd al-Rahman al-Kuzbari (1184–1262 AH / 1770–1846 CE), also known as al-Kuzbari al-Hafid (the grandson) or al-Kuzbari al-Saghir (the younger), was a Syrian Shafi'i hadith scholar and the foremost transmitter (musnid) of his era in the Levant Hilyat al-Bashar fi Tarik…+1.

Background and Education

Abu al-Mahasin Wajih al-Din Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Kuzbari was born in Damascus on the day of Eid al-Fitr in 1184 AH (1770 CE) into a family renowned for Islamic scholarship and hadith transmission Hilyat al-Bashar fi Tarik…+1. He was raised and educated by his father, the hadith lecturer Muhammad ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Kuzbari (d. 1221 AH) Hilyat al-Bashar fi Tarik…+1.

He studied under numerous prominent scholars, both Arab and Ottoman Hilyat al-Bashar fi Tarik…. His direct teachers included Ahmad al-Attar, Muhammad al-Kamili, Badr al-Din ibn Budayr al-Maqdisi, Ahmad ibn Alawi Jamal al-Layl, Nur al-Din al-Waza'i al-Azhari, Salih al-Fulani, the Shafi'i mufti of Mecca Zayn al-Din Abd al-Ghani ibn Hilal, and Muhammad Tahir ibn Sa'id Sunbul al-Hanafi Hilyat al-Bashar fi Tarik…. In addition, he obtained written transmission licenses (ijazat bi-l-mukataba) from notable authorities outside Syria, including the Egyptian scholars Ahmad al-Arusi, Muhammad al-Shinwani al-Azhari, and Hasan al-Baqli al-Maliki Hilyat al-Bashar fi Tarik….

Teaching and Standing

Following the death of his father in 1221 AH, al-Kuzbari assumed the prestigious post of teaching hadith beneath the Eagle Dome (Qubbat al-Nasr) at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus, where he regularly read Sahih al-Bukhari during the months of Rajab, Sha'ban, and Ramadan Hilyat al-Bashar fi Tarik…+1. He maintained this teaching post for forty-two years—or about fifty years according to another account Fihris al-Faharis+1.

Al-Kuzbari became widely celebrated as muhaddith al-Sham (the hadith master of the Levant) and musnid al-dunya (the preeminent transmitter of the world in his era), with students traveling from across the Muslim world to receive his transmissions al-Madkhal ila Sahih al-B…+1. Yusuf Badr al-Din al-Maghribi characterized him as the "seal of exacting scholars and leader of hadith masters, head of scholars in the Levantine lands, and bearer of the banner of hadith in the Umayyad Mosque" Fihris al-Faharis. His extensive chains of transmission were documented in his widely circulated register of transmissions, Thabat al-Kuzbari al-Madkhal ila Sahih al-B…+1.

His chains of transmission were noted for their elevation (uluww): he was the last surviving transmitter from many major authorities, shared seven teachers with his own shaykh Salih al-Fulani while outliving him by some forty-five years, and transmitted from three teachers in the generational tier of Murtada al-Zabidi's shaykhs while surviving Zabidi by roughly sixty years Fihris al-Faharis. Among those who studied under him and transmitted from him were the Hanbali judge Mustafa al-Barqawi, Ahmad ibn Abd al-Ghani Abidin, Muhammad Abu al-Nasr al-Khatib, and his sons Abd Allah and Ahmad Muslim, who succeeded him in the Umayyad Mosque hadith circle al-Madkhal ila Sahih al-B…+2.

Death

Al-Kuzbari made the pilgrimage to Mecca several times Fihris al-Faharis. He died during his final pilgrimage in Mecca on 19 Dhu al-Hijjah 1262 AH (December 1846 CE) and was buried in the cemetery of Jannat al-Mu'alla (al-Ma'lah) Fihris al-Faharis. Later biographers observed that with his passing, the global chains of hadith transmission descended by an entire degree Fihris al-Faharis.