Salah Muhammad al-Khaymi

Salah Muhammad al-Khaymi (also referred to as Salah al-Din al-Khaymi) was a Syrian bibliographer, manuscript specialist, and editor based in Damascus, best known for cataloguing the manuscript holdings of Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya Faharis Ulum al-Quran al-…+1.

Career and Scholarly Contributions

Al-Khaymi served as the director of Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya in Damascus al-Durr al-Naqi fi Sharh …. He undertook extensive cataloguing of the library's collections for publication by the Arab Language Academy in Damascus (مجمع اللغة العربية بدمشق), where his work was reviewed by its heritage committee Faharis Ulum al-Quran al-…+1. His multi-volume catalogue, Faharis Ulum al-Quran al-Karim li-Makhtutat Dar al-Kutub al-Zahiriyya, systematically documented the library's Quranic codices, treatises on recitation (tajwid and qira'at), general Quranic sciences, and exegesis (tafsir), expanding upon earlier cataloguing efforts and completing the third volume in Ramadan 1404 AH (June 1984 CE) Faharis Ulum al-Quran al-…+1.

In addition to bibliographic cataloguing, al-Khaymi conducted biographical research and textual editing. In 1402 AH (1982 CE), he published a comprehensive study and alphabetical inventory of the extant manuscript and printed works of the Hanbali scholar Yusuf ibn Abd al-Hadi in the journal of the Institute of Arabic Manuscripts in Kuwait al-Durr al-Naqi fi Sharh …+1. In critical editing, he edited Abu Sulayman ibn Zabr al-Raba'i's biographical work Wasaya al-Ulama 'inda Hudur al-Mawt (Wills of the Scholars at the Approach of Death) al-Masalik al-Qawima bi-T…. He also edited, annotated, and verified the narrations for a portion of Ibn Kathir's chronicle al-Bidaya wa-l-Nihaya (The Beginning and the End) covering the fifth Islamic century, a project reviewed by Abd al-Qadir al-Arna'ut and Bashshar Awwad Ma'ruf al-Bidaya wa al-Nihaya.