Mahmud Muhammad al-Tannahi
- Died
- 1419 AH
- Born in
- -
Mahmud Muhammad al-Tannahi (1935–1999 CE / d. 1419 AH) was an Egyptian philologist, bibliographer, and editor of classical Arabic manuscripts, known for his critical edition of Taj al-Din al-Subki's biographical dictionary Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya al-Kubra.
Early life and education
Al-Tannahi was born in 1935 in the Monufia Governorate, Egypt. At the age of eight, he moved to Cairo, where he completed the memorization of the Quran according to the reading of Hafs from Asim at age thirteen. He then enrolled in the Cairo Religious Institute of al-Azhar, obtaining his primary certificate in 1953 and his secondary certificate in 1958.
He pursued higher education at the Faculty of Dar al-Ulum at Cairo University, graduating in 1962 with a bachelor's degree in Arabic language and Islamic law. He earned his master's degree with distinction from the Department of Grammar, Morphology, and Prosody at the same faculty in 1972 with a thesis on the grammatical views of Ibn Mu'ti. In 1978, he received his doctorate with first-class honors from Dar al-Ulum for a dissertation examining the grammatical opinions of Ibn al-Shajari.
Scholarly career and mentorship
Al-Tannahi was a close student and companion of the Egyptian scholar Mahmud Muhammad Shakir, reading extensively with him from classical Arabic literature and heritage texts. In his early career, he worked as a manuscript copyist at the National Library and Archives of Egypt and spent two years at the Center for Arabic Studies at the American University in Cairo. He subsequently served for fourteen years at the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts under ALECSO, traveling on official missions to Morocco, Yemen, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia to photograph and index Arabic manuscripts.
In academia, al-Tannahi taught for eleven years in the Faculty of Arabic Language at Umm al-Qura University in Mecca, where he developed his bibliographical guide al-Mujaz fi Maraji' al-Tarajim wa-l-Buldan wa-l-Musannafat wa-Ta'rifat al-'Ulum (A Brief Guide to Reference Works on Biographies, Geographies, Written Works, and Definitions of the Sciences) for postgraduate students. He also served briefly as a visiting professor at Kuwait University and held a professorship in the Department of Arabic Language and Literature at the Faculty of Arts at Helwan University. He was an appointed expert at the Academy of the Arabic Language in Cairo and a member of the Center for Text Editing at the National Library of Egypt. Among his major editorial contributions was his critical edition of Majd al-Din Ibn al-Athir's hadith dictionary al-Nihaya fi Gharib al-Hadith wa-l-Athar.
Death
Al-Tannahi died on the morning of Tuesday, 6 Dhu al-Hijjah 1419 AH (23 March 1999 CE) while serving in his academic post at Helwan University.
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List of Works
Maqalat al-Tanahi: Safahat fi al-Turath wa al-Tarajim wa al-Lugha wa al-Adab (Articles of al-Tanahi: Pages on Heritage, Biographies, Language, and Literature) is a collection of scholarly articles, essays, and biographical studies focusing on Arabic literary heritage, manuscript studies, and scholarly biography.
al-Mujaz fi Maraji al-Tarajim wa al-Buldan wa al-Musannafat wa Tarifat al-Ulum (A Brief Guide to Reference Works on Biographies, Geographies, Written Works, and Definitions of the Sciences) is a bibliographical reference handbook providing a structured guide to core classical Arabic reference works across various disciplines.