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Nur al-Din al-Haythami

Died
807 AH
Born in
Cairo

Nur al-Din al-Haythami (735–807 AH / 1335–1405 CE) was an Egyptian Shafi'i hadith scholar and specialist in supplementary hadith literature (zawa'id), best known for his compendium Majma al-Zawaid wa Manba al-Fawaid .

Early Life and Education

He was Abu al-Hasan Nur al-Din Ali ibn Abi Bakr ibn Sulayman ibn Abi Bakr ibn Umar ibn Salih . His nisba, al-Haythami, traces back to Mahallat Abi al-Haytham, a village in Egypt . He was born in Rajab 735 AH in Cairo, where his father kept a shop in the desert area between Fustat and Mount al-Muqattam . He grew up in this secluded environment and memorized the Quran before turning to the study of prophetic tradition .

Before reaching the age of twenty, he attached himself to the hadith master Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi . Al-Haythami remained al-Iraqi’s closest associate for over five decades, serving him, traveling with him on all his journeys, performing every pilgrimage alongside him, and marrying his daughter Khadijah .

Studies, Travels, and Students

Al-Haythami received hadith alongside al-Iraqi from numerous authorities across Egypt and the Levant, including Abu al-Fath al-Maydumi, Ibn al-Muluk, and Ibn al-Qatrawani in Egypt, and Ibn al-Khabbaz, Ibn al-Hamawi, and Ibn Qayyim al-Diya'iyyah in Damascus . His travels in pursuit of hadith took him to Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Baalbek, Aleppo, Hama, Homs, and Tripoli .

Under al-Iraqi’s mentorship, al-Haythami transcribed his teacher's works and dictation sessions and developed an extensive memory for hadith texts (mutun) . At al-Iraqi's suggestion, he specialized in extracting supplementary narrations from classical collections that were absent from the Six Books, culminating in his compilation Majma al-Zawaid wa Manba al-Fawaid, in which he gathered the unique traditions of Musnad Ahmad, Musnad al-Bazzar, Musnad Abi Ya'la, and al-Tabarani's three Mu'jam dictionaries, stripped of chains and evaluated for authenticity . He also compiled Mawarid al-Zaman ila Zawaid Ibn Hibban to isolate the unique additions of Sahih Ibn Hibban over the Sahihayn .

His most prominent student was Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, who read substantial portions of al-Haythami's works directly to him and later edited and fair-copied some of his unfinished drafts . Al-Haythami also accompanied al-Iraqi's son, Wali al-Din Abu Zurah al-Iraqi, on his scholarly journey to Damascus .

Character and Standing

Biographers consistently emphasized al-Haythami's piety, ascetism, humility, and dedication to night vigil prayers (tahajjud) . Ibn Hajar described him as gentle, good-natured, pure-hearted, enduring of hardship, and firm in denouncing wrongdoing . Burhan al-Din al-Halabi counted him among the virtues of Cairo, noting his continuous labor in copying hadith and serving his teacher with complete deference . Al-Sakhawi observed that scholars were unanimous in their praise of his religious devotion and scrupulousness .

Death

Al-Haythami died in Cairo on the night of Tuesday, 29 Ramadan 807 AH (with an alternate report giving 19 Ramadan), at around the age of seventy-two . He was buried the following day outside Bab al-Barqiyyah (also recorded as Bab al-Barquqiyyah) .

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List of Works

  • Majma al-Zawaid wa Manba al-Fawaid

    Majma al-Zawaid wa Manba al-Fawaid (The Confluence of Unique Additions and Source of Benefits) is a hadith compendium in the zawa'id (supplementary hadith) genre. It gathers traditions found across six major hadith collections that are not recorded in the Six Books (al-Kutub al-Sittah).

  • Kashf al-Astar an Zawaid al-Bazzar

    Kashf al-Astar an Zawaid al-Bazzar (Lifting the Veils from the Additions of al-Bazzar) is a hadith compilation that collects the unique narrations of Musnad al-Bazzar over the Six Books.

  • Majma al-Bahrayn fi Zawaid al-Mujamayn al-Awsat wa al-Saghir li al-Tabarani

    Majma al-Bahrayn fi Zawaid al-Mujamayn (The Confluence of the Two Seas on the Additional Narrations of the Two Lexicons) is a hadith compilation that collects the supplementary narrations (zawa'id) found in al-Tabarani's al-Mu'jam al-Awsat and al-Mu'jam al-Saghir that are absent from the Six Books of hadith.

  • Mawarid al-Zaman ila Zawaid Ibn Hibban

    Mawarid al-Zaman ila Zawaid Ibn Hibban (Resources of the Thirsty for the Surplus Hadiths of Ibn Hibban) is a hadith compilation that collects the unique traditions (zawa'id) preserved in Ibn Hibban's Sahih that are not found in the Sahihayn (Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim).

  • al-Maqsad al-Ali fi Zawaid Abi Yala al-Mawsili

    al-Maqsad al-Ali fi Zawaid Abi Yala al-Mawsili (The Lofty Objective Concerning the Unique Hadiths of Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili) is a hadith collection that extracts traditions from the Musnad of Abu Ya'la al-Mawsili not found in the six canonical books (al-Kutub al-Sittah).