Ibn Haji
- Died
- 816 AH
- Born in
- Damascus
Ahmad ibn Hijji (751–816 AH / 1350–1413 CE), commonly known as Ibn Haji (or Ibn Hijji), was a Syrian Shafi'i jurist, hadith scholar, and historian based in Damascus, known for his historical chronicle continuing the annalistic tradition of Ibn Kathir.
Name and Lineage
His full name was Shihab al-Din Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn 'Ala' al-Din Hijji ibn Musa ibn Ahmad ibn Sa'id (also recorded as Sa'd) ibn Ghashm ibn Ghazwan ibn 'Ali ibn Musharraf ibn Turki al-Sa'di al-Hisbani al-Dimashqi al-Shafi'i. The nisba al-Hisbani traces his family origin to Hisban, while al-Sa'di reflects an ancestral descent he reportedly attributed, as a matter of conjecture, to the companion 'Atiyya ibn 'Urwah al-Sa'di from the tribe of Banu Sa'd ibn Bakr.
Early Life and Education
He was born on the night of Sunday, 4 Muharram 751 AH, at the Khanqah of al-Tawawisiyya in al-Sharaf al-A'la, outside Damascus. Raised in a scholarly household by his father, the prominent Shafi'i jurist 'Ala' al-Din Hijji ibn Musa (d. 782 AH), he completed his memorization of the Quran under the tutor Shams al-Din ibn Habash in 760 AH, from whom he also acquired the science of timekeeping ('ilm al-miqat). He memorized the legal compendium al-Tanbih and studied Shafi'i jurisprudence under his father for approximately twenty years.
Among his other teachers in jurisprudence were Taj al-Din al-Subki, Abu al-Baqa' al-Subki, Shams al-Din ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Ghazzi, and Ibn Qadi Shuhba. He heard hadith extensively from scholars such as 'Imad al-Din ibn al-Shayraji, Ibn Umayla, al-Salah ibn Abi 'Umar, Muhammad ibn al-Muhibb al-Maqdisi, and Taqi al-Din ibn Rafi'. In 759 AH, he received general licenses of transmission (ijazat) through the scholar Ibn Sanad from prominent authorities, including Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya, Abu Sa'id al-'Ala'i, and Ibn Nubata.
Career and Scholarly Contribution
He was engaged in teaching, issuing legal verdicts, and serving as a deputy judge in Damascus. He held the position of Friday preacher (khatib) and supervisor (nazir) of the Umayyad Mosque on multiple occasions. Although repeatedly pressed to accept the post of chief Shafi'i judge of Damascus, he declined the office, and his younger brother Najm al-Din 'Umar was appointed to the post during his lifetime. He visited Cairo several times, notably traveling in 808 AH as an envoy on behalf of the governor of Damascus, Amir Shaykh al-Mahmudi, to the Mamluk sultan al-Nasir Faraj ibn Barquq.
As a scholar, he combined expertise in Shafi'i jurisprudence with extensive hadith transmission and historical documentation. His major historical chronicle, Tarikh Ibn Hijji, was composed as a continuation of al-Bidaya wa-l-nihaya by Ibn Kathir and documented events down to Dhu al-Qa'da 815 AH. He also compiled a biographical dictionary of his teachers arranged alphabetically by name.
Standing
He was widely praised by his contemporaries and elders for his piety, precision in transmission, and legal acumen. Toward the end of his life, leadership in the religious sciences in Damascus culminated in him. During one of his visits to Cairo, he met Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, obtained a copy of the latter's Ta'liq al-Ta'liq, and inscribed an endorsement on it attesting to Ibn Hajar's mastery of hadith memorization.
Death
He died in Damascus in Muharram 816 AH (another report gives 815 AH) at the age of sixty-five.
Answer updated
List of Works
Tarikh Ibn Haji (also known as Tarikh Ibn Hijji or Dhayl Tarikh Ibn Kathir) is an annalistic chronicle of events and biographical obituaries. Composed primarily as a continuation of late Mamluk historical writing, the work provides a detailed contemporary record of Syrian, and especially Damascene, political, social, and scholarly life at the turn of the ninth century AH.