al-Majmu fi Tarjamat al-Allama al-Muhaddith al-Shaykh Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari
- Author died
- 1443 AH
- Editions
- al-Majmu fi Tarjamat al-Allama al-Muhaddith al-Shaykh Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari
al-Majmūʿ fī Tarjamat al-ʿAllāmah al-Muḥaddith al-Shaykh Ḥammād ibn Muḥammad al-Anṣārī (The Compendium on the Biography of the Erudite Hadith Scholar Shaykh Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari) is a biographical compilation compiled by Abd al-Awwal ibn Hammad al-Ansari (d. 1443 AH / 2021 CE) documenting the life, scholarly transmission, sayings, and academic legacy of his father, the hadith scholar Hammad ibn Muhammad al-Ansari (1344–1418 AH / 1925–1997 CE) .
Background and Structure
The work was published in two volumes, with its first edition appearing in 1422 AH (2001 CE) . It serves as both an extensive biographical compendium and a record of oral transmissions, assembling biographical monographs, personal memoirs, obituaries, and numbered dicta from the subject's scholarly circles .
The material in the work is structured across several categories:
- Biographical profiles and memoirs: The compiler brings together introductory biographies composed by himself and by senior contemporary scholars and students, including Ismail ibn Muhammad al-Ansari, Asim ibn Abd Allah al-Qaryuti, Muhammad ibn Nasir al-Ajmi, Abd al-Alim al-Bastawi, Walid ibn Muhammad al-Ali, Abd al-Wahhab al-Zayd, and Zayn al-Abidin ibn Ghurm Allah al-Ghamdi .
- Biographical narrative and journeys: The collection details Hammad al-Ansari's birth in Tadmakka (Mali) in 1344 AH, his lineage tracing to Sa'd ibn 'Ubadah, his memorization of texts, and his journey out of Mali in 1365 AH with two companions—Shaykh Ammar and Shaykh Uhayd—walking by night to escape French colonial rule, arriving in the Hijaz where he taught in Mecca at al-Madrasah al-Sawlatiyyah and subsequently settled in Medina .
- Chains of transmission (asānīd) and ijāzāt: It documents his licenses from various scholars, including Abd al-Haqq al-Hashimi, Qasim al-Farghani, and Hamud ibn Abd Allah al-Tuwayjiri, featuring chains such as the transmission of the ḥadīth al-awwaliyyah (the hadith of mercy) .
- Oral transmissions and sayings: A significant portion of the book consists of numbered entries introduced with the phrase "I heard him say" (samiʿtuhu yaqūl), recording Hammad al-Ansari's oral statements on theological issues, manuscript discoveries, assessments of classical and contemporary books, jurisprudential rulings, and critical evaluations of modern academic editions and personalities .
- Elegies and memorial tributes: The compendium incorporates press articles, obituaries, and eulogies published in Saudi periodicals (such as Ukaz and al-Da'wah) following his death on Wednesday, 21 Jumada al-Akhirah 1418 AH, featuring statements from scholars including Abd Allah ibn Bassam and Abd Allah ibn Mani' .
Scholarly Content and Significance
Al-Majmu' is widely utilized by contemporary researchers for its documentation of rare Islamic manuscripts and the intellectual history of twentieth-century hadith scholarship in Medina . The entries record Hammad al-Ansari's extensive private library, which was frequented by graduate students and researchers at the Islamic University of Medina, as well as his direct commentary on his own research, such as spending over thirty years compiling his biographical dictionary of the teachers of al-Tabarani entitled Bulghat al-qāṣī wa-al-dānī fī tarājim shuyūkh al-Ṭabarānī .
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