Umar ibn al-Khidr
- Died
- 640 AH
- Born in
- -
Abu Hafs Umar ibn al-Khidr (574–c. 640 AH / 1178–c. 1242 CE) was a Shafi'i scholar of hadith and jurisprudence, physician, and historian from Dinisar in the Jazira region, best known for his local biographical history Hilyat al-Sirriyyin min Khawas al-Danisariyyin (also known as Tarikh Dinisar).
Lineage and early life
His full lineage is given as Umar ibn al-Khidr ibn al-Lamash ibn al-Dazamash (or Aldazamash) ibn Isra'il al-Turki al-Danisari. An extended line also adds a further ancestor, ibn al-Khidr. Later biographical sources also refer to him as Ibn Hamawayh and give his honorific title as Imad al-Din alongside Kamal al-Din. He was of Turkish origin and was born in 574 AH (1178 CE).
He grew up in Dinisar during a period of urban and scholarly growth. During his childhood, he began studying the law of inheritance (fara'id) at the Ghazi Mosque under the Hanafi jurist Abu Bakr ibn Abd Allah ibn Rawaha al-Turki (d. 585 AH). In Dinisar, he studied under local scholars, including Abu al-Karam ibn al-Akkaf al-Mawsili, Qadi Abu Bakr al-Halabi, Qadi Abu Imran al-Maksini, and Ja'far ibn Muhammad al-Abbasi.
Travels and education
In 602 AH, he traveled as a youth to Erbil to attend the hadith lectures of Umar ibn Muhammad ibn Tabarzad and others, where Ibn al-Mustawfi recorded meeting him. He subsequently journeyed to Baghdad, where he heard hadith from prominent scholars of the era, including Abu al-Faraj Ibn al-Jawzi, Abd al-Mun'im ibn Kulayb, and al-Mubarak ibn al-Ma'tush. While in Baghdad, he also studied medicine under the Christian physician Abu al-Khayr Ibn al-Attar.
Career and standing
After completing his education, he returned to Dinisar, where he practiced medicine and engaged in jurisprudence according to the Shafi'i school. He was noted for his breadth of learning across hadith, medicine, and legal disciplines, as well as his lyric poetry (ghazal), and he composed verse praising the Ayyubid deputy in Aleppo, Jamal al-Dawla Iqbal. A large number of students heard hadith from him in Dinisar and neighboring Mardin, among whom was his son, the judge Abu Muhammad Abd al-Rahman.
His primary scholarly contribution was his biographical chronicle Hilyat al-Sirriyyin min Khawas al-Danisariyyin, which documented the jurists, reciters, physicians, and visiting scholars of Dinisar along with their transmissions, pedagogical practices, and poetry.
Death
Biographical accounts place his death around 640 AH (c. 1242 CE), while some sources note more generally that he died after 615 AH (after 1218 CE).
Answer updated
List of Works
Tarikh Dinisar (The History of Dinisar), originally titled Hilyat al-Sirriyyin min Khawas al-Danisariyyin, is a local biographical history chronicling the scholars and notable figures of the city of Dinisar in the Jazira region. It records the lives, lineages, teachers, and disciplines of resident and visiting scholars, including jurists, Quran reciters, and hadith scholars, while preserving hadith narrations with their chains of transmission, pedagogical practices, dreams, and poetic verses.