al-Tahbir fi al-Mujam al-Kabir
- Author died
- 562 AH
- Editions
- Ri’āsat Dīwān al-Awqāf
al-Tahbir fi al-Mujam al-Kabir (Arabic: التحبير في المعجم الكبير) is a biographical dictionary of teachers (muʿjam al-shuyūkh) authored by the Shafi'i hadith master and historian Abu Sa'd al-Sam'ani (506–562 AH / 1113–1167 CE) .
Scope and Content
The work belongs to the genre of scholarly repertories in which a hadith scholar compiles biographies of the teachers from whom he received narrations and knowledge . Al-Sam'ani gathered entries for the teachers he encountered during his extensive journeys across Khurasan, Transoxiana, Iraq, the Levant, and the Hijaz . The biographical notices are arranged alphabetically according to the Arabic letters (huruf al-muʿjam) .
Within each biography, the author typically records the teacher’s full lineage, nisbas, scholarly status, personal anecdotes, and samples of narrations or poetry received from them . In classical bibliographies quoting al-Sam'ani's autograph records via Ibn al-Najjar, the work was recorded as comprising 300 ṭāqah (bundles/gatherings) . Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi described the work as encompassing three volumes in manuscript form . In some copies and catalog records, such as drafts of Hajji Khalifa's Kashf al-Zunun, the title was subject to scribal misreadings, appearing erroneously as al-Takhbīr or al-Tanjīr .
Reception and Transmission
Al-Tahbir served as a direct source for later biographers, historians, and geographers. Yaqut al-Hamawi frequently cited material and nisbas from it in his geographical dictionary Muʿjam al-Buldan .
Manuscript copies of the work have survived in several collections, including the Topkapı Palace Library (Sultan Ahmed III collection) in Istanbul and the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus . The text was edited by Munira Naji Salim and published in Baghdad in two volumes in 1395 AH / 1975 CE by the Diwan al-Awqaf administration .
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