Fihris al-Faharis
- Author died
- 1382 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Gharb al-Islāmī
Fihris al-Faharis (in full: Fihris al-Faharis wa-l-Athbat wa-Mu‘jam al-Ma‘ajim wa-l-Mashyakhat wa-l-Musalsalat) is an extensive biographical dictionary and compendium of transmission chains (isnads), scholarly catalogues (faharis), and pedagogical registers (thabats) compiled by the Moroccan hadith scholar Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani (1302–1382 AH / 1884–1962 CE).
Composition and Purpose
Al-Kattani authored the work at the request of the Mauritanian scholar Muhammad Habib Allah al-Jakani al-Shinqiti. The author completed the initial draft in Fez after roughly one month of work at noon on the final day of Shawwal 1342 AH. He then devoted approximately another year to expanding, emending, and reorganizing the text, concluding its final editing on 8 Shawwal 1344 AH.
Conceived as a continuation (dhayl) to Tabaqat al-Huffaz by Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti and Ibn Nasir, the book was designed to document the biographies and transmissions of scholars who contributed to hadith literature and transmission networks from the eighth and ninth centuries AH down to the author's era.
Scope and Method
The work functions as an alphabetical encyclopedic directory of hadith authorities, bio-bibliographies, and transmission networks spanning both the Islamic West (the Maghreb and al-Andalus) and the East (including Egypt, the Levant, the Hijaz, Yemen, and India). In each entry, al-Kattani records the subject's lineage, birth and death dates, teachers, students, written works—particularly their personal faharis, mashyakhat, and musalsalat collections—and the chains through which their transmissions reached him.
Reception and Praise
The compilation received widespread acclaim and formal commendations (taqrizat) from major scholars across the Muslim world. The former Grand Mufti of Egypt, Muhammad Bakhit al-Muti'i, praised it in Rajab 1347 AH for filling a longstanding void in hadith biography and reviving the memory of later traditionists. Additional commendations were penned by scholars including Abu Abd Allah Muhammad al-Makki al-Batawari of Rabat, Ahmad Sukayrij (judge of El Jadida), Muhammad Habib Allah al-Shinqiti, and Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Rafi‘i, who highlighted its role in establishing the interconnectedness of Maghrebi and eastern scholarly lineages.
Publications and Related Works
Fihris al-Faharis was first published in two volumes in Fez in 1346–1347 AH (1928–1929 CE), carrying an introductory foreword by the author's student Abu al-Azm. It was later edited by Ihsan Abbas and printed in two volumes by Dar al-Gharb al-Islami in Beirut (second edition, 1402 AH / 1982 CE).
A dedicated commentary and marginal gloss on the book was written by Salih Ahmad Muhammad Idris al-Arkani al-Makki, entitled Tuhfat al-Majalis fi al-Ta‘liqat ‘ala Fihris al-Faharis, composed at the suggestion of the hadith scholar Muhammad Yasin al-Fadani.
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