al-Tabrizi, Abu al-Khayr
- Died
- 636 AH
- Born in
- -
Abu al-Khayr al-Tabrizi (c. 552/555–636 AH / c. 1157/1160–1238 CE) was a Hadith scholar, traveler, and head of the Dar al-Hadith in Erbil.
Early Life and Education
His full name was Badal ibn Abi al-Mu'ammar ibn Isma'il ibn Abi Nasr Muhammad ibn Mu'ammar ibn Nasr al-Tabrizi, and he was known by the kunyas Abu al-Khayr as well as Abu Muhammad after his son. He reported to have been born in 555 AH, though other accounts estimate his birth around 552 AH or shortly after 550 AH. Early in his life, he resided in Erbil and earned a living engraving coral before devoting himself to religious scholarship.
In 585 AH, al-Tabrizi traveled as a young man to Damascus to study Hadith, and he subsequently journeyed through Isfahan, Nishapur, and Egypt to collect transmissions. In Damascus, he studied under scholars such as Abu Sa'd ibn Abi 'Asrun, Ahmad ibn al-Mawazini, Yahya al-Thaqafi, and al-Qasim ibn 'Asakir, and he was a close associate of Baha' al-Din Ibn 'Asakir. In Isfahan, his teachers included Abu al-Makarim al-Labban and Muhammad ibn Abi Zayd al-Karrani; in Nishapur, he heard from Abu Sa'd al-Saffar; and in Egypt, he studied with al-Busiri and Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Naja.
Career, Standing, and Students
Al-Tabrizi returned to settle in Erbil, where the ruler Muzaffar al-Din Abu Sa'id Kukburi provided him with a stipend and appointed him head of the newly established Dar al-Hadith, where students gathered to hear traditions from him. Following the Mongol sack of Erbil, he fled to Aleppo, where he took up residence.
He was characterized by biographers as a pious and knowledgeable Hadith specialist who wrote extensively, though his handwriting was noted for being poor. Among his writings, he produced an abridgment of Ibn 'Asakir's Tarikh Dimashq (History of Damascus) and embarked on an abridged edition of an exhaustive work he had compiled on the life of the Prophet ﷺ.
Those who transmitted Hadith directly from him include al-Qusi, Muhyi al-Din Ibn Suraqa, Majd al-Din Ibn al-'Adim, and Jamal al-Din al-Sharishi, while others held transmission licenses (ijaza) from him, notably al-Mundhiri, al-Qadi al-Hanbali, and Abu Nasr al-Mizzi.
Death
Al-Tabrizi died at dawn on 3 Jumada al-Ula 636 AH (December 1238 CE) in Aleppo, where he was buried the following day, having lived past the age of seventy.
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Naṣīḥa lil-Rāʿī wal-Raʿiyya (Counsel for the Shepherd and the Flock) is a Hadith treatise that collects prophetic traditions and transmitted reports concerning rulers and their subjects, focusing on the mutual rights, obligations, and ethical conduct governing relations between political authorities and the public.