al-Muntajab al-Hamadhani
- Died
- 643 AH
- Born in
- -
al-Muntajab al-Hamadhani (d. 643 AH / 1245 CE) was a scholar of Quranic recitations (qira'at) and Arabic grammar based in Damascus, best known for his grammatical analysis of the Quran, al-Kitab al-Farid fi I'rab al-Qur'an al-Majid (The Unique Book on the Grammatical Analysis of the Glorious Qur'an) .
Lineage and Education
His full name was Muntajab al-Din Abu Yusuf Muntajab ibn Abi al-Izz ibn Rashid al-Hamadhani . Some later biographical entries recorded his given name as Husayn or Ya'qub, while others misrendered his title as al-Muntakhab .
Originally from Hamadhan, he traveled to Egypt, where he studied Quranic recitation under Abu al-Jud Ghiyath ibn Faris in 598 AH . In Damascus, he studied recitation and heard hadith from Abu al-Yaman al-Kindi, transmitted hadith from Ibn Tabarzadh, and learned the didactic poem of al-Shatibi from Abu al-Hasan al-Sakhawi .
Teaching and Students
Al-Hamadhani took up residence in Damascus, where he was appointed the head instructor of Quranic recitation (shaykh al-iqra') at the al-Zanjiliyyah madrasah .
Among those who studied Quranic recitations under him were al-Sa'in Muhammad ibn al-Zayn al-Darir al-Wasiti, al-Nizam Muhammad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Tabrizi, and Abd al-Wali ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Maqdisi . His hadith transmission was received by scholars including Sharaf al-Din Ahmad Ibn al-Jawhari, Ahmad ibn Mahmud al-Shaybani, and Badr al-Atabaki .
Scholarly Standing and Reception
Biographers characterized al-Hamadhani as an accomplished master of recitation, grammar, and Quranic syntax, noting his piety, humility, and Sufi affiliation . He composed a well-regarded commentary on al-Zamakhshari's grammatical manual al-Mufassal, as well as a lengthy commentary on the Shatibiyyah titled al-Durrah al-Faridah (The Unique Pearl) .
His standing in Damascus was overshadowed by the dominance of his former teacher al-Sakhawi, which resulted in low attendance at his teaching circles . The historian Abu Shama criticized him, writing that after benefiting from al-Sakhawi's instruction on the Shatibiyyah, al-Hamadhani ventured into composing an extensive commentary that exceeded his grasp and ungratefully denied his teacher's role . The rivalry led students of al-Sakhawi to avoid attending al-Hamadhani's lessons openly; his student al-Tabrizi reported studying four recitations under al-Hamadhani in secret to avoid conflict with al-Sakhawi .
Death
Al-Hamadhani died in Damascus in Rabi' al-Awwal 643 AH (1245 CE) . Al-Dhahabi recorded his death on 13 Rabi' al-Awwal, whereas Abu Shama reported it on 6 Rabi' al-Awwal .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Kitab al-Farid fi I'rab al-Qur'an al-Majid (The Unique Book on the Grammatical Analysis of the Glorious Qur'an) is a comprehensive treatise on Quranic grammatical analysis (i'rab), linguistic meaning, and variant readings (qira'at). It provides a systematic, start-to-finish parsing of the Quran, explaining syntactic functions, unfamiliar vocabulary, and the grammatical justifications for standard and anomalous recitations.