Mashyakhat Abi al-Mawahib al-Hanbali
- Author died
- 1126 AH
- Editions
- Mashyakhat Abi al-Mawahib al-Hanbali
Mashyakhat Abi al-Mawahib al-Hanbali (The Scholarly Inventory of Abu al-Mawahib al-Hanbali) is a work of transmission and biographical notices compiled by the Damascene Hanbali jurist and mufti Abu al-Mawahib al-Hanbali (1044–1126 AH / 1635–1714 CE) . The book documents his direct teachers, their lineages, and the scholarly chains linking Syrian and Egyptian Hanbali authorities .
Content and Scope
The work belongs to the mashyakha (scholarly inventory or catalogue of teachers) genre, recording biographical accounts and chains of transmission (asānīd) received from the author’s instructors . A central feature of the text is its continuous Hanbali transmission chains (isnād musalsal) passed down through prominent Egyptian and Damascene scholars, primarily channeled through four of the author's principal teachers: his father Abd al-Baqi ibn Abd al-Baqi al-Hanbali (d. 1071 AH), Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Khalwati, Ibn Balban al-Hanbali (Muhammad ibn Badr al-Din), and Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Umari, known as Ibn Abd al-Hadi . It also includes notices and transmissions from scholars of other traditions, such as the Hanafi jurist Khayr al-Din al-Ramli .
In his entry on his father Abd al-Baqi, the author preserves detailed genealogical information on his family—known also as the house of Ibn Badr, Ibn al-Mawahibi, and Ibn Faqih Fassa—and records evidence tying their ancestry to the family line of Ibn Taymiyyah .
Transmission and Influence
The text served as a primary reference for subsequent biographers and prosopographers of the Hanbali school. It was notably utilized as a source by Kamal al-Din al-Ghazzi in his biographical dictionary al-Na't al-Akmal li-Ashab al-Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal (The Most Complete Characterization of the Companions of Imam Ahmad ibn Hanbal) . Transmissions from the work continued down through later chains of authorization (thabat and ijāzah literature) compiled by scholars across Syria and the Arabian Peninsula .
Manuscripts and Publication
Manuscript copies of the text, sometimes cataloged under the title Shuyukh Abi al-Mawahib al-Hanbali or Tarajim Mashayikh Abi al-Mawahib, are preserved in repositories including the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (under MS 3672) . The text was edited by Muhammad Muti' al-Hafiz and published by Dar al-Fikr in Damascus in 1990 .
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