Ibn al-Imadiyya
- Died
- 673 AH
- Born in
- Alexandria
Ibn al-Imadiyya, Mansur ibn Sulaym al-Hamdani (607–673 AH / 1210–1275 CE), was an Alexandrian Shafi'i hadith scholar, historian, and market inspector best known for his onomastic biographical work Dhayl Takmilat al-Ikmal .
Lineage and Early Life
His full name was Abu al-Muzaffar (also surnamed Abu Ali) Wajih al-Din Mansur ibn Sulaym ibn Mansur ibn Futuh ibn Yakhlif al-Hamdani al-Iskandari, widely known by the patronymic Ibn al-Imadiyya . He was born in Alexandria on Saturday, 8 Safar 607 AH, in the Marj al-Shaykh area of its cemetery .
Education and Career
Ibn al-Imadiyya traveled extensively across the Islamic world to study hadith . He studied in Alexandria under Muhammad ibn Imad and Abu al-Qasim al-Safrawi, visited Cairo, and traveled through Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Harran, Baghdad, and Mecca . Among his notable teachers were Abu al-Hasan al-Qati'i, Ibn Ruzbah, Ibn al-Latti, Mukram ibn Abi al-Saqr, Ya'ish ibn Ali, and Bashir al-Tibrizi .
After returning to Alexandria, he held public posts including the superintendence of public morals and markets (hisba) and teaching appointments . He transmitted hadith to scholars including Abd al-Mu'min ibn Khalaf al-Dimyati, Izz al-Din al-Husayni, and Sayf al-Din al-Dawadari, and granted a general certification (ijaza) to the historian Ilm al-Din al-Birzali .
In scholarship, he specialized in disambiguating homonymous transmitter names, authoring Dhayl Takmilat al-Ikmal as a supplement and correction to Ibn Nuqta's work on the orthography of similar names . He also compiled a local chronicle on Alexandria entitled al-Durra al-Saniyya fi Tarikh al-Iskandariyya and recorded his teachers in a Mu'jam documenting around one thousand instructors .
Standing and Death
Biographers praised him as an accomplished hadith master (hafiz) of gentle character, excellent conduct, and generosity toward visiting students .
Ibn al-Imadiyya died in Alexandria on the night of Saturday, 21 Shawwal 673 AH . He was buried the following afternoon between the two harbors outside the city in the presence of a large assembly .
Answer updated
List of Works
Dhayl Takmilat al-Ikmal (Supplement to the Completion of "The Perfected") is a biographical and onomastic reference work on hadith transmitters. Serving as a continuation to Ibn Nuqta's Takmilat al-Ikmal, the book focuses on the disambiguation and orthography of graphically identical or easily confused proper names and patronymics (al-mu'talif wa-l-mukhtalif).