Majma Bahar al-Anwar
- Author died
- 986 AH
- Editions
- Maṭba‘at Majlis Dā’irat al-Ma‘ārif al-‘Uthmāniyyah
Majma‘ Bihar al-Anwar fi Ghara'ib al-Tanzil wa-Lata'if al-Akhbar (The Confluence of the Seas of Lights on the Rarities of Revelation and Subtle Reports) is an encyclopedic dictionary of rare and obscure vocabulary (gharib) found in the Quran and Hadith, authored by the Indian traditionist Muhammad Tahir al-Fatani al-Kujrati (d. 986 AH / 1578–1579 CE) .
Composition and Context
Muhammad Tahir al-Fatani composed the work in the city of Patan in Gujarat, India, during a period marked by political strife and hostility from corrupt authorities and opponents of scholars . The text was arranged and written in parts:
- The first third was completed on 20 Ramadan in Patan, concluding just before the entry of ra' with kha' .
- The second volume concluded at the letter ‘ayn on 11 Ramadan 976 AH, to be followed by the letter ghayn in the third volume .
- The final third was completed on the night of the 12th of Rabi‘ al-Awwal .
In the colophon of the final section, the author describes drafting the work under difficult circumstances, in seclusion and under persecution by oppressive rulers, asking readers to excuse any lapses .
Scope, Method, and Content
The work is organized alphabetically according to word roots to elucidate obscure terms and linguistic rarities in both the Quran and the Prophetic traditions . In addition to lexical definitions, it provides substantive explanations of hadith meanings and clarifies difficult passages .
The author had earlier compiled al-Mughni fi Dabt Asma' al-Rijal to record the precise vocalization of narrator names and geographical places found across the Six Books of Hadith . Consequently, he refrained from comprehensively documenting name vocalizations within Majma‘ Bihar al-Anwar, referring readers instead to al-Mughni, though he appended a distinct concluding section to Majma‘ Bihar al-Anwar summarizing general rules on narrator names extracted from that earlier book .
Reception and Printing
Majma‘ Bihar al-Anwar achieved broad recognition in scholarly circles . The hadith scholar Habib al-Rahman al-A'zami characterized it as the most comprehensive compilation on gharib al-hadith as well as an engaging exposition of the meanings and obscure dimensions of prophetic reports . The Indian scholar Abd al-Haqq al-Dihlawi observed that the work effectively serves as an overarching commentary on the Six Books of Hadith .
Early print editions of the work were issued by the Munshi Nawal Kishore press in Ramadan 1283 AH (first edition) and Ramadan 1314 AH (second edition) .
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