al-Hawashi ala Sunan Ibn Majah
- Author died
- 841 AH
- Editions
- Dar Atlas al-Khadra
al-Hawashi ala Sunan Ibn Majah (al-Hawāshī ʿalā Sunan Ibn Mājah, "Marginal Glosses on Sunan Ibn Majah") is a single-volume hadith commentary authored by the Syrian hadith scholar al-Burhan al-Halabi (753–841 AH / 1353–1438 CE), commonly known as Sibt Ibn al-Ajami, on the canonical hadith collection Sunan Ibn Majah of Ibn Majah (209–273 AH / 824–887 CE) .
Composition and Scope
Al-Burhan al-Halabi completed the work in 791 AH (1389 CE), and it was described by al-Sakhawi as a concise annotation (taʿlīq laṭīf) and by al-Taqi Ibn Fahd as filling a single volume . In his preface, the author recorded that he compiled these brief marginal glosses in great haste after believing that no prior commentary had been written on Sunan Ibn Majah; he noted that his purpose was not to collect divergent scholarly opinions or systematically evaluate hadith authenticity and legal rulings, and that any such discussions appeared only tangentially . His remark that nothing had previously been written on the work has been noted as surprising, given that his teachers' teacher, Ala' al-Din Mughaltay (d. 762 AH / 1361 CE), had earlier written a commentary covering part of Sunan Ibn Majah before his death .
Textual Basis and Transmission
Al-Halabi read and audited Sunan Ibn Majah repeatedly, relying on reliable manuscript copies . He made extensive use of the manuscript exemplar of al-Malik al-Muhsin—praising its accuracy and noting that he had not encountered an equal manuscript of Ibn Majah—which had itself been collated against the manuscript of Ibn Asakir . He also consulted other copies to document variant readings and omissions in the transmission of the text .
The author transmitted and read the collection to numerous students in Aleppo, including at the Sharafiyyah Madrasah; among those who studied it with him were Shihab al-Din Ahmad ibn Balban al-Lu'lu'i, Abd al-Wahhab ibn Zurayq, Muhammad ibn Abi Bakr ibn Zurayq, and the brothers Zayn al-Din Umar and Abu Bakr al-Nasibi .
Manuscripts
An autograph manuscript in al-Burhan al-Halabi's own hand, dated to 791 AH, is preserved in the Feyzullah collection in Istanbul .
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