Ibn al-Zahiri
- Died
- 696 AH
- Born in
- Aleppo
Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Zahiri (626–696 AH / 1229–1296 or 1297 CE), commonly known as Ibn al-Zahiri, was an Aleppine hadith scholar and traditionist based in Cairo, best known for his biographical and hadith compilations such as Mashyakhat Ibn al-Bukhari.
Name and Background
His full name was Jamal al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Halabi. He was born in Aleppo in the month of Shawwal 626 AH. His nisba al-Zahiri stemmed from his family's association with the Ayyubid ruler of Aleppo, al-Zahir Ghazi, whose client (mawla) was his forebear Abd Allah.
Education and Travels
Ibn al-Zahiri studied the Qur'anic recitations (qira'at) during his upbringing in Aleppo. He undertook extensive journeys in pursuit of hadith, traveling across the Levant, Egypt, the Jazira, and Khurasan. He received transmissions in numerous cities, including Aleppo, Damascus, Hama, Homs, Baalbek, and Jerusalem.
His teachers numbered approximately seven hundred authorities. Among the prominent scholars from whom he received hadith were Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi, Ibn al-Latti, Ibn Rawaha, Karima, and al-Nashtabri.
Teaching and Later Life
Ibn al-Zahiri eventually settled in Cairo, where the Ayyubid-Mamluk emir Aydughdi al-Uzayri established a Sufi hospice (zawiya) for him outside the city overlooking the Nile, where he resided for a prolonged period. He taught and narrated hadith over many years, transcribing a large volume of texts in his own hand.
A substantial cohort of distinguished scholars transmitted from him, including Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Mizzi, Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi, al-Birzali, al-Qutb al-Halabi, and Ibn Sayyid al-Nas. Al-Birzali heard more than two hundred codices (ajza') from him. Al-Dhahabi recorded that he began and concluded his hadith study in Egypt under Ibn al-Zahiri, resided at his lodge, and relied upon his personal manuscripts.
As a compiler, he authored several works of transmission, including al-Arba'un al-Buldaniyya (a collection of forty hadiths collected from forty distinct localities) and the authoritative compilation of the teachers of Fakhr al-Din Ibn al-Bukhari, entitled Mashyakhat Ibn al-Bukhari.
Death
Ibn al-Zahiri died at his residence outside Cairo in 696 AH (1296 or 1297 CE). Sources report differing dates for his passing: the 26th of Rabi' al-Awwal 696 AH, while an alternative account places it on 26 Sha'ban of the same year.
Answer updated
List of Works
Mashyakhat Ibn al-Bukhari is a biographical and hadith compilation (mashyakha) that documents the teachers and narrations of the Hanbali hadith scholar Fakhr al-Din Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi, known as Ibn al-Bukhari. The work gathers biographical entries and transmitted traditions received through his various instructors.