al-Jami li-Sirat Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya Khilal Sabat Qurun wa Takmilat al-Jami
- Author died
- 1444 AH
- Editions
- Dār ‘Aṭā’āt al-‘Ilm
al-Jami li-Sirat Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya Khilal Sabat Qurun wa Takmilat al-Jami (The Compendium of the Biography of Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya Across Seven Centuries and the Compendium's Supplement) is a biographical sourcebook compiled and edited jointly by Muhammad Uzayr Shams (d. 1444 AH) and Ali ibn Muhammad al-Imran . Introduced by Bakr ibn Abd Allah Abu Zayd, the work gathers biographical accounts of Ibn Taymiyya (661–728 AH) dispersed across historical chronicles, general biographical dictionaries, and annals spanning seven centuries .
Purpose and Scope
The compilers intended the collection to serve as a comprehensive reference of biographical texts on Ibn Taymiyya recorded in general sources, sparing researchers the need to search dozens of printed and manuscript volumes . Chronologically, the coverage opens during Ibn Taymiyya's lifetime with an entry by Ibn Shaykh al-Hazzamin (d. 711 AH) and concludes at the end of the thirteenth Islamic century (1300 AH) with Nu'man Khayr al-Din al-Alusi's (d. 1317 AH) work Jala' al-Aynayn, completed in 1297 AH .
The compilers excluded standalone biographical monographs devoted to Ibn Taymiyya—such as Ibn Abd al-Hadi's al-'Uqud al-Durriyya and Mar'i al-Karmi's al-Kawakib al-Durriyya—deeming them independent works that complement the compendium . In its initial form, the book gathered 75 entries across more than 700 pages, authored by 55 scholars representing diverse regions and theological orientations . Later additions expanded this count to 88 entries written by 64 scholars, including 12 texts edited directly from unpublished manuscripts .
Method and Structure
Entries are arranged chronologically according to the death dates of their authors, with unverified dates positioned conjecturally . The compilers transcribed each biographical entry completely without abridgment, deletion, or modification, providing annotations detailing the source edition or manuscript shelfmark and physical repository . They included both favourable and critical assessments, presenting the full spectrum of historical material . Detailed scholarly indices accompany the texts .
Publication History and Supplement
The work was first issued by Dar 'Alam al-Fawa'id in Mecca under the project dedicated to the corpus of Ibn Taymiyya (Athar Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyya wa-ma Lahiqaha min A'mal) . A supplementary volume, Takmilat al-Jami, was subsequently published separately to incorporate omitted biographies . In the fifth edition—published jointly by Dar 'Ata'at al-'Ilm and Dar Ibn Hazm—the supplement was merged directly into the parent text into a unified volume . This combined edition incorporated newly added entries by al-Fayruzabadi and Abd al-Hayy al-Lakhnawi, collated several entries against additional manuscripts—such as al-Dhahabi's al-Durrah al-Yatimiyyah against the Zahiriyya manuscript and Ibn Murri's epistle against the Jerusalem manuscript—and combined the original prefaces, apparatus, and indices .
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