Ibn al-Qaysarani Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Maqdisi
- Died
- 507 AH
- Born in
- Jerusalem
Ibn al-Qaysarani Muhammad ibn Tahir al-Maqdisi (448–507 AH / 1056–1113 CE) was a Palestinian hadith scholar, traveler, and historian who followed the Zahiri school of jurisprudence and is well known for his pioneering hadith indexing work, Atraf al-Kutub al-Sitta (The Extremities of the Six Books) .
Early Life and Travels
Abu al-Fadl Muhammad ibn Tahir ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Shaybani was born in Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis) in Shawwal 448 AH . He began his education in his native city, where the first scholar he heard hadith from was the jurist Nasr ibn Ibrahim al-Nabulsi .
Driven by the pursuit of prophetic traditions, he undertook exceptionally wide journeys across the Islamic world, prompting Ibn al-Sam'ani to remark that he doubted anyone in his era had traveled as extensively as he did . His travels took him to Egypt—including Alexandria and Tinnis—the Syrian coastal frontiers, the Hijaz, al-Jazira, Iraq, al-Jibal, Fars, Khuzistan, and Khurasan . He entered Baghdad in 467 AH and arrived in Damascus in search of hadith in 471 AH .
Teachers and Students
Among his teachers in Egypt were Ibrahim ibn Sa'id al-Habbal and Ali ibn al-Hasan al-Khal'i . In Damascus, he studied under Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Abi al-Ila al-Massisi . In Mecca, he transmitted from Sa'd ibn Ali al-Zanjani, al-Hasan ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Shafi'i, and Hayyaj ibn Ubayd al-Hittini . In Baghdad, his authorities included Abu al-Hasan Ibn al-Nuqur, Abu Muhammad Ibn Hazar-Mard, Abu al-Qasim Ibn al-Busri, and Abu al-Qasim Ibn al-Muhibb .
His students and transmitters included Abu al-Muzaffar Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Abiwardi, Abu al-Barakat al-Anmati, Abu Nasr al-Yunarti, and Abu al-Mu'ammar al-Ansari . His son, Abu Zur'a Tahir ibn Muhammad al-Maqdisi (480/481–566 AH), was also an accomplished hadith transmitter .
Legal Views, Standing, and Controversies
In jurisprudence, he adhered to the literalist Zahiri school of Dawud al-Zahiri, while also displaying strong Sufi inclinations . In his work Safwat al-Tasawwuf (The Elite of Sufism), he defended the legal permissibility of musical audition (sama'), an stance that provoked critical rebuttals from traditionalist jurists such as Ahmad ibn Isa ibn Qudama .
Contemporary scholars acknowledged his vast capacity for memorization; the hafiz Isma'il ibn Muhammad ibn al-Fadl observed that he was the most prolific memorizer of hadith he had ever seen . However, critics including Ibn Asakir pointed out that he was prone to frequent mistakes (wahm), occasionally made severe transmission errors, and had a weak grasp of Arabic grammar, though he composed refined poetry .
Later Life and Death
He eventually settled in Hamadhan . He died in Baghdad upon his return from the Hajj pilgrimage, with two nights remaining in Rabi' al-Awwal 507 AH (1113 CE) .
Answer updated
List of Works
Tadhkirat al-Huffaz (also known as Atraf Ahadith Kitab al-Majruhin li-Ibn Hibban) is a specialized hadith reference work indexing the flawed and fabricated narrations recorded in Ibn Hibban's biographical dictionary of weak transmitters, Kitab al-Majruhin. Arranged alphabetically by the opening phrases of the narrations, it serves as a manual for hadith critics and researchers to quickly locate problematic traditions and identify their defects.
Marifat al-Tadhkira (Ma‘rifat al-Tadhkira fī al-Aḥādīth al-Mawḍū‘ah) is a hadith critical manual designed to identify fabricated, unreliable, and rejected narrations. It gathers traditions circulated during debates and polemical exchanges, offering scholars a reference arranged alphabetically by opening phrasing to quickly verify problematic texts, pinpoint defective transmitters, and review critical verdicts.
Dhakhirat al-Huffaz is a hadith reference work that reorganizes and indexes the weak, uncorroborated, and fabricated narrations found in Ibn Adi's biographical dictionary al-Kamil fi Du'afa' al-Rijal. Arranging its 6,597 entries alphabetically by their opening words, the work facilitates searching directly by narration text while providing critical assessments of problematic transmitters and points of weakness.
Masalat al-Uluw wa al-Nuzul fi al-Hadith (The Issue of Elevation and Descent in Hadith) is a concise treatise on hadith methodology and isnad criticism. It defines and categorizes elevated (ʿuluww) and descending (nuzūl) chains of transmission into five distinct degrees, offering practical criteria, religious rationale, and illustrative examples for evaluating the length and reliability of transmission paths.
al-Ansab al-Muttafiqa is an onomastic biographical dictionary devoted to clarifying relational surnames (nisbas) that share identical Arabic script, diacritics, and vocalization but refer to completely different ancestries, locations, trades, or origins. Under each homographic designation, it distinguishes individual transmitters, details their distinct backgrounds, and provides critical assessments of their reliability.
al-Manthur min al-Hikayat wa al-Sualat (The Scattered Narratives and Inquiries) is a biographical, anecdotal, and Hadith-criticism compilation. It brings together scattered notes, direct inquiries addressed to scholars, critical evaluations of hadith transmitters, biographical anecdotes, and personal observations collected during travels across Islamic learning centers such as Mecca, Baghdad, Herat, Egypt, Rayy, and Jurjan.
Mas'alat al-Tasmiyah (The Question of the Basmalah) is a specialized treatise examining the legal and hadith-critical rulings on reciting the basmalah silently or aloud in ritual prayer. The work evaluates the transmission evidence for both practices, presenting critical arguments based on four primary foundational reports to address whether the basmalah should be recited audibly at the beginning of Surah al-Fatihah and subsequent chapters.
Atraf al-Gharaib wal-Afrad is a hadith reference work that arranges and indexes the solitary and rare narrations (al-afrad wa-l-ghara'ib) originally collected by al-Daraqutni. Using the atraf method, it abridges each narration to its opening segment accompanied by a summary of al-Daraqutni's critical judgments and defects, organizing the previously unindexed material across five structured divisions.
Al-Ansab al-muttafiqa fi al-khatt al-mutamathila fi al-naqt wa-al-dabt, also known as al-Mu'talif wa-al-mukhtalif fi al-ansab, is an onomastic biographical work dedicated to distinguishing homonymous patronymics and relational names (nisbas). It clarifies names that share identical Arabic script, diacritical dots, and vocalization marks but designate entirely separate geographical, tribal, or vocational origins.
Idah al-Ishkal (Clarification of Ambiguities) is a biographical hadith treatise belonging to the genre of al-mubhamat. It is dedicated to uncovering and identifying anonymous individuals who are mentioned obliquely or left unnamed—such as "a man," "a woman," or "a relative"—within prophetic hadith texts and chains of transmission.
Kitab al-Sama (The Book of Audition) is a legal and hadith treatise defending the permissibility of audition (sama), singing, and musical instruments. Composed in response to an inquiry regarding audition in all its varieties, the work provides a systematic exposition supported by textual evidences and proofs, premised on the principle of original permissibility within a Zahiri legal framework.