Akhbar Qabail al-Khazraj
- Author died
- 705 AH
- Editions
- ‘Imādat al-Baḥth al-‘Ilmī, al-Jāmi‘ah al-Islāmīyah bi-al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah
Akhbar Qabail al-Khazraj (News of the Tribes of al-Khazraj) is a biographical and genealogical work by the hadith scholar and genealogist Abd al-Mumin ibn Khalaf al-Dumyati (613–705 AH / 1217–1306 CE) . It is dedicated to the genealogy, history, and biographical notices of the Arab tribe of al-Khazraj—one of the two principal tribes of the Ansar—as well as their sub-clans, allied lineages, and clients .
Scope and Structure
The work is considered the first in Arabic literature dedicated exclusively to the tribe of al-Khazraj, and the third surviving treatise focused specifically on the tribes of the Ansar, following Ibn Qudamah's (d. 620 AH) al-Istibsar fi Nasab al-Sahabah min al-Ansar and Abu Bakr 'Atiq ibn Ahmad al-Ghassani al-Gharnati's (b. 635 AH) Nuzhat al-Absar fi Fada'il al-Ansar .
Al-Dumyati structured the work genealogically around the five sons of al-Khazraj ibn Haritha: 'Amr, al-Harith, Ka'b, 'Awf, and Jusham . Each of these five tribal divisions is treated independently along with its branching sub-clans (butun) . Within each clan, the author provides entries for male and female Companions, Successors, and subsequent generations, tracing some lineages down to his own contemporaries in the seventh and early eighth centuries AH . He also appends dedicated sections for the confederates (hulafa') and clients (mawali) affiliated with each clan .
Method and Sources
Al-Dumyati employed a genealogical arrangement (al-tariqah al-nasabiyyah) modeled after classical genealogists and biographers such as Hisham ibn al-Kalbi, Ibn Sa'd, and Khalifah ibn Khayyat . He drew extensively on Ibn Sa'd's Kitab al-Tabaqat al-Kabir as well as Ibn al-Kalbi's Jamharat al-Nasab, while incorporating hadiths transmitted by the biographees . The book also preserves transmissions and citations from rare or lost historical and genealogical works, such as al-Fawa'id by Abu Bishr Isma'il al-Asbahani Sammawayh (d. 267 AH), Nasab Himyar by Abu Sulayman Hani' ibn al-Mundhir al-Kala'i, and al-Maghazi by Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Umawi (d. 194 AH) .
Throughout the entries, al-Dumyati recorded his own elevated chains of transmission (asanid 'aliyah) and textual correspondences (muwafaqat) to major canonical hadith works . He systematically noted and corrected genealogical errors, orthographic slips, and misattributions found in earlier authorities, including al-Bukhari, Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj, Abu Dawud al-Sijistani, al-Tirmidhi, Ibn Majah, Ibn Abi Hatim, al-Tabarani, Ibn Abd al-Barr, Ibn Hibban, Ibn Makula, and Ibn Asakir .
Transmission and Reception
The work was utilized and cited by subsequent historians and biographers, including Ibn Sayyid al-Nas (d. 734 AH) in 'Uyun al-Athar, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH) in al-Isabah fi Tamyiz al-Sahabah and Tahdhib al-Tahdhib, and Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi (d. 902 AH) in al-Tuhfah al-Latifah fi Tarikh al-Madinah al-Sharifah .
A surviving manuscript of the text preserves audition records (sama'at) documented in the author's presence, read by his son Ahmad ibn 'Abd al-Mu'min and attended by students such as the copyist Ahmad ibn Ahmad al-Hakkari, Abu 'Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Himyari al-Malaqi, and Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn 'Ali al-Gharnati .
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