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Muhibb al-Din Ibn al-Najjar

al-Durra al-Thamina fi Akhbar al-Madina

Author died
643 AH
Editions
t Buhuth al-Madina · Dar al-Arqam edition

al-Durra al-Thamina fi Akhbar al-Madina (The Precious Pearl on the History of Medina) is a historical and geographical treatise on the city of Medina, written by the Baghdadi traditionist and historian Muhibb al-Din Ibn al-Najjar (578–643 AH / 1183–1245 CE) .

Composition and Context

Ibn al-Najjar entered Medina in 607 AH during his travels in the Hejaz . While staying there, a group of virtuous and scholarly residents (mujawirun) questioned him regarding the virtues and history of the Prophet's city and requested that he set down his knowledge in writing . He initially declined because he was separated from his books and reference materials, but after their persistent requests, he agreed and composed the work from memory .

Although one eighth-century AH manuscript bore the title Nuzhat al-Zaman fi Akhbar al-Madina on its cover in a different hand, biographers and all other known manuscript copies record the authentic title as al-Durra al-Thamina fi Akhbar al-Madina .

Structure and Contents

The work is organized into eighteen chapters (abwab), tracing the history, topography, and religious merits of Medina :

  1. The names of Medina and its earliest inhabitants .
  2. The opening and settlement of Medina .
  3. The Hijra of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ and his Companions to Medina .
  4. The religious merits and virtues of Medina .
  5. The sanctuary status (tahrim) of Medina and its sacred boundaries .
  6. Wadi al-Aqiq and its virtues .
  7. The wells of Medina and their virtues .
  8. Mount Uhud, its merits, and the virtues of its martyrs .
  9. The expulsion of Banu al-Nadir from Medina .
  10. The digging of the trench (Khandaq) around Medina .
  11. The campaign against Banu Qurayza in Medina .
  12. The Prophet's Mosque (al-Masjid al-Nabawi) and its merits .
  13. Other mosques located across Medina and their merits .
  14. The Mosque of Harm (Masjid al-Dirar) and its demolition .
  15. The deaths of the Prophet ﷺ and his two companions Abu Bakr al-Siddiq and Umar ibn al-Khattab .
  16. The merit of visiting the Prophet ﷺ and greeting him .
  17. The cemetery of al-Baqi' and its virtues .
  18. Notable Companions, Successors, and subsequent figures who resided and died in Medina .

Method and Sources

The book incorporates Quranic verses, prophetic hadiths, and historical reports (athar) transmitted from the Companions and Successors . It contains 249 hadiths; Ibn al-Najjar provided complete chains of transmission (isnad) for 55 of them, while narrating the remainder without isnads, relaying some verbatim and the majority by meaning due to his reliance on memory away from his source texts .

Ibn al-Najjar was heavily influenced by earlier historians of Medina, particularly Muhammad ibn al-Hasan Ibn Zabala, from whose lost Akhbar al-Madina he quoted thirty-two verbatim passages complete with their isnads, reflecting Ibn Zabala's thematic arrangement and style .

Transmission and Influence

The text was transmitted by scholars shortly after its compilation; Abu al-Yumn Ibn 'Asakir heard from Ibn al-Najjar in Baghdad in 641 AH and received a formal authorization (ijaza) to transmit the work, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani later recorded receiving an ijaza for roughly the first third of the book through Ahmad ibn Ni'ma al-Hajjar from the author .

Later Medina historians relied extensively on al-Durra al-Thamina . Jamal al-Din Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Matari (d. 741 AH) authored a continuation (dhayl) to it, and Zayn al-Din al-Maraghi (d. 816 AH)—who praised Ibn al-Najjar's history as one of the most comprehensive and meticulously verified compilations on Medina—combined the materials of Ibn al-Najjar and al-Matari with editorial revisions and additions in his Tahqiq al-Nusra bi-Talkhis Ma'alim Dar al-Hijra . Extensive excerpts from the work were also incorporated by Nur al-Din al-Samhudi (d. 911 AH) in his Wafa' al-Wafa bi-Akhbar Dar al-Mustafa .

Publication History

The book was published in Cairo by Matba'at al-Risala in 1366 AH (1947 CE), and subsequently reprinted in Cairo as an appendix to al-Taqi al-Fasi's Shifa' al-Gharam bi-Akhbar al-Balad al-Haram by Matba'at Isa al-Babi al-Halabi in 1956 CE . A critical edition prepared by Salah al-Din ibn Abbas Shukr was published in Medina by the Madinah Research and Studies Center in 1427 AH (2006 CE) .

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