Bahjat al-Nazirin ila Tarajim al-Mutaakhirin min al-Shafiiyya al-Bariin
- Author died
- 864 AH
- Editions
- Dār Ibn Ḥazm lil-Ṭibā‘ah wal-Nashr wal-Tawzī‘
Bahjat al-Nazirin ila Tarajim al-Mutaakhirin min al-Shafiiyya al-Bariin ("The Delight of Onlookers Regarding the Biographies of the Late Accomplished Shafi'is") is a biographical dictionary of late Shafi'i scholars authored by the Damascene jurist and historian al-Radi al-Ghazzi (811–864 AH / 1409–1457 CE) .
Composition and Scope
Al-Ghazzi began compiling the work in early 839 AH and completed the fair copy on Wednesday afternoon, 11 Ramadan 842 AH, at his residence near the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus . He formulated the dictionary as a concise biographical record of Shafi'i authorities of the ninth Islamic century, focusing on teachers under whom he studied, scholars he met in the Hejaz, Damascus, and Cairo, and contemporaries who died during his lifetime .
The author set a general boundary restricting entries to figures whose deaths occurred in the ninth century AH, even if at its start, though he occasionally included earlier figures parenthetically within the entries of their relatives or fellow townsmen . In chronicling his contemporaries, al-Ghazzi regularly situated events in relation to the invasion of Timur in 803 AH, referring to it as the "Timurid disturbance" (al-fitna al-tamuriyya) to designate deaths and offices held before and after the upheaval . He drew frequently upon the historical records of earlier authorities, especially Shihab al-Din Ibn Hijji (d. 816 AH) for scholars who died prior to 816 AH .
Structure and Arrangement
Al-Ghazzi arranged the work systematically according to the following framework:
- Opening entry: He inaugurated the collection with the biography of Siraj al-Din al-Bulqini (d. 805 AH), whom he regarded as the leading Shafi'i authority of the era; al-Ghazzi stipulated that whenever the term "al-Shaykh" appears without qualification in the text, it designates al-Bulqini .
- Onomastic priority: Following al-Bulqini, he listed scholars named Muhammad, followed by those named Ahmad, out of honor for the Prophet's names .
- Alphabetical order: The remaining entries are arranged alphabetically from Alif to Ya', following the organisational method adopted by Taj al-Din al-Subki in his biographical dictionary Tabaqat al-Shafiiyya al-Kubra .
Reception and Manuscripts
The contemporary historian al-Sakhawi examined the book in Damascus and recorded it under the title Bahjat al-nazirin ila tarajim al-mutaakhirin min al-shafiiyya al-mutabarin . Al-Sakhawi later cited al-Ghazzi's entry on Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani in his biographical work al-Jawahir wa-l-durar .
The primary manuscript of the work is preserved at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (MS 3420), transcribed from the author's holograph at the direction of his son, Shihab al-Din Ahmad . Another manuscript is held at the General Library in Rabat (MS 1834 D), copied in 1343 AH / 1924 CE by Abd al-Aziz Atiyyah Khattab Hammudah . The work was edited by Abu Yahya Abd Allah al-Kandari and published by Dar Ibn Hazm in Beirut in 1421 AH / 2000 CE .
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