Dhikr Shuyukh al-Sharif Abi al-Fadl Ibn al-Mahdi
- Author died
- 444 AH
- Editions
- Dhikr Shuyukh al-Sharif Abi al-Fadl Ibn al-Mahdi
Dhikr Shuyukh al-Sharif Abi al-Fadl Ibn al-Mahdi (Dhikr Shuyūkh al-Sharīf Abī al-Faḍl Ibn al-Mahdī, "A Record of the Teachers of the Sharif Abu al-Fadl Ibn al-Mahdi") is a biographical dictionary of teachers (mashyakha) compiled by the Baghdadi hadith scholar and nobleman Abu al-Fadl ibn al-Mahdi (d. 444 AH / 1052–1053 CE).
Purpose and Scope
In his introduction, the author states that he assembled the work to document the teachers he met and received knowledge from, providing information about their status, their death dates, and selections of prophetic hadith, well-received anecdotes, or verses of poetry transmitted from each. He intended the compilation to serve as a commemoration and a means for readers to pray for mercy upon them.
Structure and Organization
The author arranged his teachers hierarchically by social and scholarly standing:
- The Hashimites (Banu Hashim), whom he placed first.
- Probated and certified witnesses (al-shuhud al-mu'addalun).
- Jurists and leading religious authorities (al-fuqaha' a'lam al-din).
- Quranic reciters and instructors (al-qurra' wa-al-muqri'un).
- Preachers, ascetics, hadith scholars, and hadith masters (al-wu''az wa-al-zuhhad wa-shuyukh al-hadith wa-al-huffaz).
- Men of letters and other individuals from whom he heard a single anecdote or piece of verse.
The entries feature biographical notices and sample transmissions. The opening entry is dedicated to the author's maternal uncle, Abu Abd Allah Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Samad al-Hashimi (343–418 AH), a judge, ascetic, and the preacher of the Mansur Mosque in Baghdad for around forty years. Other early entries include the Maliki judge Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Muhammad ibn Abi Musa al-Hashimi (d. 387 AH), from whom the author heard hadith at eight years of age; the judge Abu al-Hasan Ali ibn Abd Allah al-Hashimi (d. 415 AH); the Hanbali jurist Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Abi Musa al-Hashimi (d. 428 AH), from whom he received Kitab al-Irshad on Hanbali jurisprudence; and the Shafi'i jurist Abu al-Qasim Abd al-Wahid ibn Ali al-Mansuri (d. 415 AH).
Transmission and Manuscripts
The text was transmitted directly from the author by his son, the sharif Abu Ali Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Abd al-Aziz, and was subsequently transmitted on the authority of the hadith master Abu Tahir al-Silafi (d. 576 AH). A manuscript copy of the work is preserved in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (MS 5268).
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