al-Fakhr al-Mutawali fiman Intasab lil-Nabi min al-Khadam wa al-Mawali
- Author died
- 902 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Manār
al-Fakhr al-Mutawali fiman Intasab lil-Nabi min al-Khadam wa al-Mawali ("Continuous Pride Regarding Those Associated with the Prophet Among Servants and Freedmen") is a biographical monograph by the Shafi'i hadith scholar and historian al-Sakhawi (831–902 AH / 1427–1497 CE) compiling the names and biographical accounts of the servants and freedmen (mawali) of the Prophet Muhammad .
Scope and Contents
In a note recorded from his autograph manuscript, al-Sakhawi established that the work identifies approximately 130 individuals who served the Prophet, comprising seventy male slaves and freedmen, thirty female slaves and freedmen, and about thirty free servants . In addition, the text treats around sixty disputed or variant names—such as more than twenty variant names ascribed to the companion Safina, twelve for Abu Rafi' al-Qibti, eight for Dhakwan, and approximately twenty for others—bringing the total number of names examined in the treatise to just under two hundred .
Al-Sakhawi contrasted his enumeration with that of Abu Zakariyya al-Nawawi in Tahdhib al-Asma' wa al-Lughat, where al-Nawawi counted seventy-four individuals (forty-seven men and thirteen women) alongside fourteen free servants, noting that they did not all serve the Prophet simultaneously . Four of the free servants enumerated by al-Nawawi were freedmen of others: Bilal ibn Rabah and Sa'id (freedmen of Abu Bakr al-Siddiq), Muhajir (freedman of Umm Salama), and Abu al-Samh Iyad .
Structure and Method
Al-Sakhawi arranged the biographical entries in alphabetical order (huruf al-mu'jam) . To distinguish free servants from enslaved attendants and freedmen, he placed the Arabic abbreviation kha' (خ) above the entries of the free servants . He also provided precise vocalizations for names that were obscure or prone to mispronunciation .
In analyzing the biographies and resolving conflations between individuals, al-Sakhawi drew upon earlier biographical and hadith literature, frequently citing assessments from Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's al-Isaba fi Tamyiz al-Sahaba, as well as writings by Mughultay, al-Damiri, and Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani .
Publication
The work was edited by Mashhur Hasan Mahmud Salman and published in a single volume by Maktabat al-Manar in Zarqa, Jordan (1407 AH / 1987 CE) . A revised and expanded edition was subsequently published by Dar Ghiras in Kuwait (1423 AH / 2002 CE), issued alongside al-Sakhawi's al-Ajwiba al-'Aliyya 'an al-As'ila al-Dimyatiyya .
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