Mutun Talib al-Ilm - al-Idafiya - 1
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- Dr. 'Abd al-Muhsin ibn Muhammad al-Qasim
Mutun Talib al-Ilm – al-Idafiyya – 1 (Supplementary Texts for the Student of Knowledge – Volume 1) is a critical edition of the foundational Hadith terminology primer Nukhbat al-Fikar fi Mustalah Ahl al-Athar (The Elite of Thoughts on the Terminology of the People of Tradition) by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani (d. 852 AH / 1449 CE), prepared by Abd al-Muhsin al-Qasim, Imam and Khatib of the Prophet's Mosque in Medina .
Context and Purpose
The volume serves as the first entry in the supplementary branch (al-Mutun al-Idafiyya) of the Mutun Talib al-Ilm project, a broader curriculum designed to provide verified, reliable source texts for students of Islamic sciences to study and memorize . Ibn Hajar’s Nukhbat al-Fikar was selected for this volume due to its widespread reception and status as a concise yet comprehensive synthesis of Hadith terminology that categorized and reorganized earlier scholarship on the subject .
Editorial Method and Manuscript Basis
The edition was established through the collation of multiple early manuscript copies, including manuscripts read directly before Ibn Hajar that preserve his own handwriting and authorizations (ijazas), as well as copies transcribed and verified by his immediate students :
- Manuscripts preserved in Cairo at Dar al-Kutub al-Misriyya (including the Taymuriyya collection and the Tal'at collection copied in 844 AH by Muhammad ibn Musa ibn 'Imran al-Muqri) .
- Manuscripts held in Istanbul at the Süleymaniye Library collections (Raghib Pasha, Pertev Pasha dated 843 AH, Hekimoglu dated 852 AH, Hagia Sophia dated 857 AH, and As'ad Efendi dated 869 AH) and the Atif Efendi Library .
- A copy in Morocco at the Hamzawiyya Library (No. 204), read before Ibn Hajar with his license granted in Jumada al-Akhirah 850 AH to Nur al-Din Ali ibn Dawud al-Jawhari .
- A copy held at Princeton University Library (Garrett Collection, No. 3949), transcribed in 850 AH by Ibn Hajar's student Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Hammad al-Abdari al-Hamawi and read before the author .
- A copy at the Zahiriyya Library in Damascus (No. 4895), transcribed in 851 AH by Ahmad ibn Muhammad Ibn al-Akhsasi and read before Ibn Hajar .
To optimize the volume for student memorization, al-Qasim stripped the main text of critical apparatus footnotes, textual variants, and extended annotations, reserving the full apparatus and comparative variant readings for a separate academic version .
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