al-Jawhar al-Munaddad fi Tabaqat Mutaakhkhiri Ashab Ahmad
- Author died
- 909 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Khānjī
al-Jawhar al-Munaddad fi Tabaqat Mutaakhkhiri Ashab Ahmad (The Arranged Jewel on the Generations of Late Followers of Ahmad) is a biographical dictionary of late Hanbali scholars compiled by the Damascus-based Hanbali jurist and traditionist Ibn al-Mubarrad (also known as Ibn Abd al-Hadi, 840–909 AH / 1436–1503 CE) . The work serves as a biographical continuation (dhayl) to Ibn Rajab’s Dhayl Tabaqat al-Hanabila .
Title and Composition
The sole surviving manuscript lacks an original title page and opens with the copyist's heading designating it as Dhayl Ibn Abd al-Hadi ala Tabaqat Ibn Rajab, lacking some entries at the beginning of the letter alif . The full title al-Jawhar al-Munaddad fi Tabaqat Mutaakhkhiri Ashab Ahmad is recorded by Katip Celebi (Hajji Khalifa) in Kashf al-Zunun, where he noted that it was alphabetically arranged and claimed that Ibn al-Mubarrad completed it in 781 AH . Ibn Badran adjusted this date to 871 AH in al-Madkhal, as Ibn al-Mubarrad was born in 840 AH .
The surviving text does not preserve an explicit completion date, and it contains death notices from well after 871 AH, including the biographies of his father Hasan (d. 899 AH), Faraj al-Sharafi (d. 898 AH), his brother Ahmad (d. 895 AH), and other scholars who died in the 890s and early 900s AH .
Scope, Structure, and Method
Ibn Rajab had concluded his biographical collection with his teacher Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyya (d. 751 AH) . Ibn al-Mubarrad took up where Ibn Rajab ended, compiling 211 biographies in the extant text, though he also included a few earlier individuals who died prior to 751 AH, such as Dawud al-Mutatabbib (d. 737 AH), Zaynab bint al-Kamal (d. 740 AH), and Ali ibn al-Munjajja (d. 750 AH) . He also included contemporaries, teachers, relatives, and students, some of whom died after him, such as Ahmad ibn Yahya Ibn Atwah (d. 948 AH) .
The entries are arranged alphabetically by given name (huruf al-mu'jam), though the internal ordering within each letter does not strictly follow alphabetical sequence by fathers' and grandfathers' names . The work generally leans toward brevity, noting teachers, travels, writings, and judicial or teaching posts, with minimal poetry or extended legal rulings . Entry lengths vary considerably: Ibn al-Mubarrad provides detailed notices for figures such as Ibn Rajab, Zayn al-Din Ibn al-Habbal, Abu Sha'r al-Maqdisi, and Ala al-Din al-Mardawi, whereas other entries consist of short one-line statements .
Sources
The material draws on two main categories of sources:
- Direct firsthand knowledge, including Ibn al-Mubarrad's personal interactions with teachers and contemporaries, their appointments to official posts in judicature, fatwa-issuing, and teaching, and eyewitness records of death dates .
- Written historical and biographical works, including Tarikh Ibn Qadi Shuhba, Ibn Habib al-Halabi's Durrat al-Aslak fi Tarikh Dawlat al-Atrak and its continuation by his son, al-Dhahabi's al-Mu'jam al-Mukhtass, Ibn Rafi' al-Sallami's al-Wafayat, Burhan al-Din Ibn Muflih's al-Maqsad al-Arshad, an unnamed historical compilation by Ibn Nasir al-Din al-Dimashqi, the Mu'jam shuyukh of Shihab al-Din Ibn Rajab, and Ibn Kathir's chronicle along with its continuation .
Editions
The work was edited by Abd al-Rahman ibn Sulayman al-Uthaymin from its unique manuscript copy, first published in Cairo (Maktabat al-Khanji / Matba'at al-Madani, 1407 AH / 1987 CE) and later reissued in Riyadh by Maktabat al-Ubaykan (1421 AH / 2000 CE) .
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