al-Misbah al-Mudi fi Kitab al-Nabi al-Ummi wa Rusulihi ila Muluk al-Ard min Arabi wa Ajami
- Author died
- 783 AH
- Editions
- ʿĀlam al-Kutub
al-Misbah al-Mudi fi Kitab al-Nabi al-Ummi wa Rusulihi ila Muluk al-Ard min Arabi wa Ajami (The Illuminating Lamp Regarding the Scribes of the Unlettered Prophet and His Emissaries to the Kings of the Earth, Arab and Non-Arab) is a biographical and historical work by the Mamluk-era scholar Ibn Hadida (721–783 AH / 1321–1381 CE) on the scribes, diplomatic envoys, and official correspondence of the Prophet Muhammad .
Background and Composition
The author, Abu Abd Allah Jamal al-Din Muhammad (also recorded as Abd Allah) ibn Ali ibn Ahmad al-Ansari, known as Ibn Hadida, was of Jerusalem origin and served as the librarian of the Salahiyya Khanqah in Cairo . He completed the work in Egypt during the month of Dhu al-Qa'da 779 AH / March–April 1378 CE .
Ibn Hadida states in the preface that his impetus for writing the book arose while examining a report in the Musnad of Abu Bakr al-Bazzar concerning the dispatch of Dihyah al-Kalbi to the Byzantine emperor (Caesar), which was transmitted on the authority of the emissary himself, unlike the narrative in the Sahihayn of al-Bukhari and Muslim that was transmitted via Ibn Abbas from Abu Sufyan . This prompted him to assemble the Prophet's correspondences, document the Companions who served as his scribes, and compile related historical, lexical, and biographical notices .
Structure and Method
The work is organized into an opening prologue followed by two primary parts:
- Prologue: A comprehensive examination of the Prophet's noble lineage, names, and titles . Ibn Hadida notes that he was inspired to prefix his work with this discussion after reading Ibn Munir al-Halabi's commentary on the abridgment of the Prophet's biography (Mukhtasar al-Sirah) by Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi .
- Part One (al-Qism al-Awwal): Dedicated to the scribes (kuttab) of the Prophet . It opens with biographies of the Four Rightly Guided Caliphs, followed by the rest of the scribes arranged in alphabetical order .
- Part Two (al-Qism al-Thani): Dedicated to the Prophet's emissaries (rusul) and his letters sent to the rulers and kings of the earth, both Arab and non-Arab, inviting them to Islam . It documents the messengers alphabetically, along with the texts of the letters, the responses of recipient rulers, and records of who embraced Islam or acknowledged the prophethood .
In his methodology, Ibn Hadida extracted material from major historical and hadith compilations through multiple lines of transmission . He attributed each cited report to established scholars while omitting full chains of narration (asand) to maintain brevity, retaining only essential narrators such as the Companion or Successor . Throughout the entries, he supplemented the accounts with death dates of Companions, details regarding their initial conversion to Islam, explanations of rare vocabulary (gharib al-lughah), and related historical anecdotes .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscripts of al-Misbah al-Mudi are preserved in several collections, including the al-Ahmadiyya library in Aleppo (MS 280), the Ahmet III collection in Istanbul (Medine MS 438), and the Damad Ibrahim collection (MS 407) .
The book was edited by Muhammad Azim al-Din and published in two volumes by the Da'irat al-Ma'arif al-Uthmaniyyah in Hyderabad, Deccan (1396–1397 AH / 1976–1977 CE), and later reprinted by Alam al-Kutub in Beirut .
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