al-Awali li Shams al-Din al-Jazari

al-Awali (The High-Chain Hadiths), or Kitab al-Awali, is a hadith treatise by the Syrian Shafi'i scholar and master of Quranic recitations Ibn al-Jazari (d. 833 AH / 1429 CE), presenting a collection of forty hadiths transmitted through exceptionally short and elevated chains of narration ('uluww al-isnad) al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1.

Background and Purpose

Ibn al-Jazari composed the work in emulation of his teacher Zayn al-Din al-Iraqi, who had assembled a collection of forty decavalent hadiths (al-Arba'un al-'Ushariyyah) al-Awali li Shams al-Din …. Because Ibn al-Jazari shared Iraqi's senior teachers and found no one on earth sharing his elevated proximity in transmission, he compiled these forty sound and reliable reports al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1. In these chains, ten intermediaries separate him from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and nine from the Companions, making his eyes the tenth to see someone who saw the Prophet ﷺ through an authentic, connected chain; in the Quran, twelve scholars separate him from the Prophet ﷺ al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1.

To safeguard the authenticity of his chains, Ibn al-Jazari explicitly excluded individuals accused of fabrication or false claims of longevity and companionship, such as Nastur al-Rumi, al-Ashajj al-Maghribi, Abu Hadba al-Basri, Busr ibn Abd Allah, Nu'aym ibn Salim, Dinar ibn Abd Allah Abu Mukayyis, Kharrash ibn Abd Allah, Musa al-Tawil, Ya'la ibn al-Ashdaq, Rabi' ibn Mahmud al-Mardini (who appeared in 599 AH), Baba Ratan al-Hindi (who appeared after 620 AH), and Ma'mar (who claimed companionship around 700 AH) al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1.

Structure and Method

The work begins with an introductory treatise on the theory and classifications of 'uluww (elevation in isnads), divided into two primary categories al-Awali li Shams al-Din …:

• Qualitative elevation ('uluww ma'nawi): Narration through master scholars and rigorous preservers (huffaz), regardless of chain length al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1. Ibn al-Jazari notes that transmitting Sahih Muslim through Ibn Kathir from Ibn Taymiyyah from Ahmad ibn Abd al-Da'im is qualitatively superior and dearer to him than transmitting it via a shorter chain through Ahmad ibn Abd al-Karim al-Ba'labakki from Zaynab bint Umar ibn Kindi al-Awali li Shams al-Din ….
• Formal elevation ('uluww suri): Numerical shortness in the chain of transmission, divided into five types: closeness to the Prophet ﷺ; closeness to a prominent hadith imam (giving rise to muwafaqah, badal, musafahah, and musawah); priority of audition (qidam al-sama'); the earlier death of a shaykh's transmitter; and earlier personal audition from a teacher al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1.

The author also delineates the transmission terminology applied in the work, including direct audition (sama'), reading to a teacher (qira'ah or 'ard), and five valid types of authorization (ijazah) al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1. Following the introduction, the book presents forty hadiths, providing for each report its full isnad, text, hadith grade, and technical analysis demonstrating how its route constitutes an elevated substitution (badal 'ali), elevated concordance (muwafaqah 'aliyah), or an elevation over canonical collections by one to four degrees al-Awali li Shams al-Din …+1.