Awali Malik Riwayat Umar ibn al-Hajib
- Author died
- 630 AH
- Editions
- دار الغرب الإسلامي [طبع مع مجموعة من عوالي الإمام مالك]
Awali Malik Riwayat Umar ibn al-Hajib (The Elevated Transmissions of Malik: Transmission of Umar ibn al-Hajib) is a hadith tract (juzʾ) compiled by the Syrian traditionist and hadith master Izz al-Din Abu Hafs Umar ibn Muhammad ibn Mansur al-Amini, known as Ibn al-Hajib al-Amini (d. 630 AH / 1233 CE) . The work gathers elevated chains of transmission (ʿawālī) originating from the teachings and narrations of the founder of the Maliki school, Imam Malik ibn Anas (d. 179 AH / 795 CE) .
Author and Context
The compiler, Ibn al-Hajib al-Amini, was a Damascus-born hadith scholar who traveled widely in pursuit of traditions—including journeys to Baghdad, Egypt, and Alexandria—before dying in Damascus in Shaʿban 630 AH before reaching the age of forty . His nisba al-Amini derived from his grandfather Mansur having served as chamberlain (ḥājib) to Amin al-Dawla, ruler of Bosra, or in reference to the founder of al-Madrasa al-Aminiyya in Damascus . Known as an active collector of narrations and a compiler of several texts—including his large biographical dictionary of shaykhs (al-Muʿjam al-Kabīr)—he compiled this specialized compilation from his own auditions (masmūʿāt) under various masters in Baghdad and Damascus .
Contents and Structure
The tract consists of hadiths reported through short, elevated isnads terminating at Imam Malik ibn Anas . The opening section presents reports transmitted through Malik's student Mus'ab ibn 'Abd Allah al-Zubayri (d. 236 AH), which Ibn al-Hajib received through chains passing through authorities such as Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi (d. 317 AH), Abu al-Waqt al-Sijzi (d. 553 AH), and the Baghdadi teacher Zakariyya ibn Ali al-Ulbī, read at the ribat of Abu al-Najib al-Suhrawardi along the Tigris in Baghdad in Dhu al-Hijjah 623 AH . Other chains are traced through teachers such as Musa ibn Abd al-Qadir al-Jili in Damascus .
The text covers a selection of legal and devotional rulings drawn from Malik's transmissions, including:
- Legal rulings on clientage (walāʾ) and emancipation .
- Ritual practices of Hajj, such as sacrifice, shaving the head, entering the Kaaba, and running between al-Safa and al-Marwah .
- Prescribed penalties and legal values in theft .
- Virtues and general ethics, including the narration of the seven individuals shaded under the Divine throne .
Manuscripts and Publication
A manuscript copy of the tract is preserved in the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (Majmuʿ 103, fols. 119–126) under the title ʿAwālī Ḥadīth Mālik . The text was edited by Muhammad al-Hajj al-Nasir and published by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut (2nd edition, 1998) as part of a collective volume compiling various early collections of ʿAwālī Mālik, alongside works of the same genre by Hisham ibn Ammar, Abu Ahmad al-Hakim, Sulaym ibn Ayyub al-Razi, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Zahir ibn Tahir al-Shahhami, and Abu al-Yumn al-Kindi .
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