al-Marhama al-Ghaythiya bi al-Tarjama al-Laythiya
- Author died
- 852 AH
- Editions
- A manuscript published in the free Jawāmi‘ al-Kalim program affiliated with the Islamweb website
al-Marḥama al-Ghaythīya bi al-Tarjama al-Laythīya (Arabic: المرحمة الغيثية بالترجمة الليثية) is a biographical and hadith monograph by the Shafi'i hadith scholar and historian Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (773–852 AH / 1372–1449 CE) dedicated to the life, virtues, legal legacy, and transmitted narrations of the early Egyptian jurist and traditionist al-Layth ibn Sa'd (94–175 AH / 713–791 CE).
Background and Composition
Ibn Hajar composed the treatise in response to requests from colleagues who asked for a concise collection detailing the biography, merits, and elevated hadith transmissions (ʿawālī) of al-Layth ibn Saʿd. According to Ibn Hajar's student al-Sakhawi, the author completed the work in the month of Shaʿban in 834 AH (April/May 1431 CE), and it was recited back to him at the Maqam in Mecca. The work is also recorded under alternative titles, including Marḥamat al-Ghayth bi-Tarjamat al-Layth and Manāqib al-Layth.
Structure and Content
Ibn Hajar organized the treatise into eight chapters, matching the number of the gates of Paradise:
- Lineage, origins, birth, and homeland: Covers al-Layth's descent, debates surrounding his origins, and reports regarding his birth in 94 AH.
- Education, travels, and teachers: Details his scholarly upbringing, his journeys to the Hijaz and Iraq, and his direct and mediated transmissions from figures such as Ibn Shihab al-Zuhri, Nafiʿ (the client of Ibn ʿUmar), and Hisham ibn Urwah.
- Virtues, chivalry, and generosity: Documents al-Layth's character, his early prominence, and numerous accounts of his immense charity, financial support for scholars such as Malik ibn Anas and Ibn Lahi'ah, and aid to the needy.
- Scholarly praise and standing: Compiles assessments from major authorities, including Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Yahya ibn Ma'in, and al-Shafi'i, emphasizing al-Layth's legal proficiency and critical reliability in hadith.
- Relations with rulers and caliphs: Recounts his interactions with the Abbasid caliphs Abu Ja'far al-Mansur, al-Mahdi, and Harun al-Rashid, as well as his influence over regional governors and judges in Egypt.
- Students and legal legacy: Enumerates the transmitters and scholars who took hadith and fiqh from him. Ibn Hajar remarks here that after examining works of comparative jurisprudence (kutub al-khilāf), he found no solitary legal positions (infirādāt) held by al-Layth contrary to the consensus of the Companions and Successors except for a single issue: the prohibition of consuming dead locusts.
- Death and funeral: Records his demise in Shaʿban 175 AH, the immense crowds at his funeral, and calculations of the temporal span between his passing and Ibn Hajar's era.
- Selected narrations (al-ʿawālī): Presents a collection of forty hadiths transmitted through al-Layth's chain of narration, featuring eight intermediaries between Ibn Hajar and al-Layth, alongside Ibn Hajar's source analysis (takhrīj) and evaluation of each narration's chains.
Publication History
The work was printed in Egypt at the Amiri Press in Bulaq in 1301 AH (1884 CE), proofread by the scholar Muhammad al-Husayni. It is frequently cited across later biographical compendia and hadith commentaries, including works by al-Suyuti and Abd al-Ra'uf al-Munawi.
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