al-Maqdisi, Ahmad ibn Abd al-Wahid
- Died
- 623 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Ahmad ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi (564–623 AH / 1169–1226 CE) was a Syrian Hanbali jurist, legal theorist, and hadith scholar, commonly known as al-Bukhari.
Early life and family
Ahmad ibn Abd al-Wahid ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Isma'il ibn Mansur al-Sa'di al-Maqdisi, bearing the kunya Abu al-Abbas and the honorific Shams al-Din, was born during the last ten days of Shawwal 564 AH on Mount Qasiyun overlooking Damascus. He was raised in a prominent scholarly family from the Maqdisi community: his younger brother was the traditionist and historian Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi, his maternal uncle was the jurist Muwaffaq al-Din Ibn Qudama, and his son was the long-lived transmitter Fakhr al-Din Ibn al-Bukhari.
Education and travels
Al-Maqdisi began his hadith studies in Damascus, learning from scholars including Abu al-Ma'ali Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman ibn Sabir, Abu al-Fahm ibn Abi al-Aja'iz, and Abu Talib al-Khadir ibn Tawus. In his teens, he traveled to Baghdad alongside family members, where he studied Hanbali jurisprudence under Abu al-Fath ibn al-Manni and heard traditions from Ibn al-Jawzi, Abu al-Fath ibn Shatil, and Abu al-Sa'adat al-Qazzaz.
He embarked on an extensive journey eastward to Iraq, Khurasan, Ghazna, and Transoxiana, which lasted approximately fourteen years. Along this route, he transmitted hadith in Wasit, Hamadhan, Nishapur (from Abd al-Mun'im al-Furawi), and Herat. He resided for a prolonged period in Bukhara, where he studied dialectical disputation (khilaf) under Radi al-Din al-Naysaburi and studied with Abu al-Khattab Sharaf; this lengthy stay earned him the enduring moniker "al-Bukhari."
Career and public life
Upon his return to Syria, al-Maqdisi passed through Aleppo and settled for a period in Hims. The Ayyubid ruler of Hims, al-Malik al-Mujahid Shirkuh, assigned him a formal stipend to preside over teaching assemblies dedicated to hadith and jurisprudence. While al-Mundhiri recorded that al-Maqdisi had held the judgeship (qada) of Hims, the historian Ibn al-Adim rejected this, clarifying that he had been brought there exclusively to teach hadith, while Salih ibn Abi al-Shibl served continuously as the town's judge. In addition to teaching, al-Maqdisi leveraged his standing with rulers and provincial officials to intercede on behalf of his fellow Maqdisi community members to fulfill their needs.
Scholarly standing and students
Al-Maqdisi was widely praised for his command of disputed legal questions, breadth of memorization, personal decorum, and piety. Al-Dhahabi described him as an authoritative scholar, mufti, and debater of complete probity, noting that none among the Maqdisi scholars surpassed him in eloquence. Among his written compilations was a short specialized tract on the virtues of military campaigning, Fadl al-Jihad (The Virtue of Jihad).
He taught hadith in both Damascus and Hims. Those who transmitted from him included his brother Diya' al-Din, his son Fakhr al-Din Ali, his nephew Shams al-Din Muhammad ibn al-Kamal, his cousin Shams al-Din Ibn Abi Umar, Abd al-Razzaq al-Ras'ani, Abu al-Mahamid Ismail ibn Hamid al-Qusi, and al-Rashid al-Attar, while he granted an audition license (ijaza) to al-Mundhiri.
Death
Al-Maqdisi died in Jumada al-Akhira 623 AH. Al-Mundhiri placed his death on Thursday night, the 5th of the month, whereas Ibn al-Adim and the subject's son Fakhr al-Din identified Friday night, the 15th of Jumada al-Akhira, as the date, the latter regarding it as the more accurate account. He was buried the following day on Mount Qasiyun beside his uncle Muwaffaq al-Din Ibn Qudama.
Answer updated
List of Works
This work is a specialized hadith compendium and fascicle (juz') comprising extracted prophetic traditions and chains of transmission gathered during extensive travels across regions such as Iraq, Khurasan, and Transoxiana.
This work is a collection of hadith transmissions and extractions (takhrij) compiled from various teachers and audition records gathered during scholarly travels and teaching assemblies.
This short hadith treatise (juz') collects thirty-five numbered prophetic traditions and early historical reports on the virtues of military struggle, frontier defense, and martyrdom, complete with their chains of transmission.