Ibn Humayd
- Died
- 1295 AH
- Born in
- Unayzah
Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Humayd (1236–1295 AH / 1820–1878 CE; another report gives 1233 AH) was a Hanbali jurist, traditionist, historian, and the Hanbali mufti in Mecca, best known for his biographical work al-Suhub al-Wabila ala Dara'ih al-Hanabila .
Origin and Education
He was Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Ali ibn Uthman ibn Humayd al-Amiri al-Najdi al-Makki, tracing his lineage to the tribe of Amir ibn Sa'sa'a (and by confederation to Subay') . He was born in Unayzah, the center of al-Qasim in Najd, where he grew up in a scholarly household .
Ibn Humayd began his studies in Unayzah under the town's judge and prominent Hanbali scholar, Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Rahman Aba Butayn, reading concise and major works under him in jurisprudence, legal theory, hadith, and theology, including treatises by Ibn Taymiyya . He subsequently journeyed extensively in pursuit of knowledge, visiting Mecca, Medina, Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, and Damascus .
Among his prominent teachers were Muhammad al-Sanusi, whom he accompanied for years; Mahmud al-Alusi, the mufti of Baghdad, from whom he studied the auxiliary sciences; Ibrahim al-Saqqa al-Azhari; Muhammad al-Hudaybi and Abd al-Jabbar al-Basri in Medina; as well as scholars of Mecca such as Ahmad Zayni Dahlan and scholars in Damascus from the al-Shatti family . He also received general authorizations from the hadith scholars Muhammad Abid al-Sindi and Muhammad al-Ahdal .
Scholarly Career and Controversies
After his travels, Ibn Humayd settled permanently in Mecca, where he served as the official Mufti of the Hanbalis, delivered sermons, and led prayers at al-Masjid al-Haram . He taught numerous students, among them Salih ibn Abd Allah al-Bassam .
Ibn Humayd's magnum opus is al-Suhub al-Wabila ala Dara'ih al-Hanabila ("The Pouring Clouds Over the Graves of the Hanbalis"), a biographical dictionary composed as a continuation of Ibn Rajab's Dhayl ala Tabaqat al-Hanabila . Completed in 1288 AH, the book is arranged alphabetically and contains 843 biographies covering Hanbali jurists across five and a half centuries up to his own era .
A theological dispute alienated Ibn Humayd from his early teacher Aba Butayn, centered on debates regarding the invocation of the deceased and absent, in connection with treatises by Dawud ibn Jirjis and Dahlan . Ibn Humayd penned a rebuttal titled Qurrat al-Ayn fi al-Radd ala Abi Butayn, to which the Najdi scholar Abd al-Rahman ibn Hasan responded with al-Mahajjah fi al-Radd ala Sahib al-Lajjah . Later Najdi commentators criticized Ibn Humayd for omitting Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, his descendants, and leading Najdi reform figures from al-Suhub al-Wabila .
Death
Ibn Humayd died in al-Ta'if in 1295 AH / 1878 CE (with another report recording Mecca as the place of death and burial) .
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Suhub al-Wabila ala Dara'ih al-Hanabila is a biographical dictionary of Hanbali scholars. Written as a continuation to Ibn Rajab's al-Dhayl ala Tabaqat al-Hanabila, the work documents late Hanbali jurists and scholars across more than five centuries, spanning from 751 AH down to the late thirteenth century AH.