Mashyakhat al-Qazwini
- Author died
- 750 AH
- Editions
- دار البشائر الإسلامية
Mashyakhat al-Qazwini (also referred to as al-Mashyakha al-Sirajiyya) is a catalogue of scholarly transmissions and chains of authority (mashyakha) compiled by the Shafi'i hadith scholar and Quran reciter Siraj al-Din Abu Hafs 'Umar ibn 'Ali ibn 'Umar al-Qazwini (683–750 AH / 1284–1349 CE) .
Purpose and Composition
The work originated after requests from scholars and students for general certificates of transmission (ijazat) . In particular, his student Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn Abi al-Husayn Mansur ibn 'Ali al-Wasiti requested a formal license conveying what al-Qazwini held through audition, recitation, direct handling (munawala), and general authorization . Because individual licenses drafted from memory contained varying chains that caused confusion among those unfamiliar with the paths of transmission, scholars requested that al-Qazwini produce a standardized, fair copy devoid of individual exclusions to serve as a comprehensive mashyakha for his contemporaries .
Scope and Method
The work documents al-Qazwini's narrations across multiple Islamic disciplines, including:
- Quranic sciences and the canonical seven, ten, and non-canonical (shadhdh) readings
- Hadith collections, traditions, and prophetic reports (sunan and athar)
- Quranic exegesis (tafsir)
- Jurisprudence and legal theory (usul and furu'), theology, and Sufism
- Arabic language, grammar, literature, and history
In compiling his routes, al-Qazwini established the condition that he would record only those chains he knew to be the highest available in his era, maintaining that anyone claiming higher transmission in standard hadith works in that period was mistaken or uninformed .
Transmission and Publication
The work was transmitted by several of al-Qazwini's students, including Mas'ud ibn al-Muzaffar al-Bazizi al-Shafi'i, who read it from him in 734 AH, as well as Abu al-Hasan 'Ali ibn 'Abd al-Karim al-Wasiti . It was cited and recorded in later bibliographic works such as Katip Celebi's Kashf al-zunun and Abd al-Hayy al-Kattani's Fihris al-faharis . A modern critical edition was prepared by 'Amir Hasan Sabri and published by Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya in Beirut (1426 AH / 2005 CE) .
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