al-Mujam li Abd al-Khaliq ibn Asad al-Hanafi
- Author died
- 564 AH
- Editions
- دار البشائر الإسلامية
al-Mu'jam (The Dictionary) is a 6th-century AH biographical dictionary of hadith teachers compiled by the Damascus-based jurist and traditionist Abd al-Khaliq ibn Asad al-Hanafi (d. 564 AH / 1168–1169 CE; another report gives 583 AH / 1187 CE) . The book documents his direct teachers, providing samples of their transmitted narrations alongside brief biographical identifications .
Background and Scope
The author, Abu Muhammad Taj al-Din Abd al-Khaliq ibn Asad ibn Thabit al-Dimashqi (originally from Tripoli), undertook travels in pursuit of hadith to centers such as Baghdad, Hamadhan, and Isfahan, gathering narrations directly from local scholars . He composed this dictionary to record the scholars from whom he directly heard hadiths .
The work comprises entries for 287 teachers, among whom 17 are female scholars . Chronologically, the earliest deceased teacher included in the collection is Muhammad ibn Ali ibn al-Sharabi (d. 525 AH / 1131 CE), while the latest is Dhakir ibn Kamil (d. 591 AH / 1195 CE) .
Structure and Method
Entries are arranged alphabetically according to the initial letter of each teacher's given name, though strict alphabetical order is not maintained beyond the first letter, nor within the same letter group . Within each letter section, male teachers are listed first, followed by female teachers at the end of the section .
For each teacher, Abd al-Khaliq provides their name and genealogy, adding biographical details in 113 instances . Under each biography, he records one, two, or three hadiths transmitted through that teacher, occasionally noting narrations the teacher transmitted from their own shaykhs, as well as selected lines of permissible poetry . Following the strict methodology of traditionists (ashab al-hadith), the author deliberately excluded narrations received via general authorization (ijazah), limiting the collection solely to transmissions received through direct auditory audition (sama') .
Transmission and Reception
The work circulated among later scholars; the historian and traditionist al-Dhahabi remarked in his biographical chronicle that he possessed a fine manuscript copy of the dictionary . Among its surviving manuscripts is Köprülü MS 390 (comprising 117 folios), which bears an audition note dated 560 AH . The text has been edited by Nabil Sa'd al-Din Jarrar and published by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyyah .
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