Nuzhat al-Huffaz
- Author died
- 581 AH
- Editions
- Muʾassasat al-Kutub al-Thaqāfīyah
Nuzhat al-Huffaz (The Promenade of the Memorizers) is a concise hadith treatise by the Persian traditionist Abu Musa al-Madini (501–581 AH / 1108–1185 CE) focused on specialized narrator lineages and transmission chains .
Subject and Content
The work opens with the doxology: «الحمد لله الموفق المنيب الداعي» ("Praise be to God, who grants success to the penitent suppliant...") . As described by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, the book is structured around narrators who share identical names, father names, grandfather names, and similar onomastic agreements, along with the extraction (takhrij) of hadiths transmitted through their respective chains . It includes various forms of chained narrations (musalsalat), such as traditions transmitted sequentially by narrators named Khalaf, or a report transmitted by six women named Fatima, five of whom consecutively narrate from their respective paternal aunts .
In Kashf al-Zunun, Hajji Khalifa notes that the poet and scholar Abu al-Muzaffar al-Abiwardi (d. 507 AH / 1113 CE) also authored an unrelated, concise work bearing the same title, which was noted by Taj al-Din al-Subki .
Transmission and Additions
The book was transmitted by Diya' al-Din al-Maqdisi, who received it through direct audition (sama') from Abu 'Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Makki from Abu Musa al-Madini, and also through direct written correspondence (mukataba) from Abu Musa himself . Diya' al-Din subsequently composed a supplement of additions (Ziyadat) appended to the end of the text . Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani studied and transmitted the treatise together with Diya' al-Din's additions through Fatima bint al-Manja from Sulayman ibn Hamza from Diya' al-Din .
Editions
The treatise has been published in modern editions, including:
- An edition edited by 'Abd al-Radi Muhammad 'Abd al-Muhsin (Beirut: Mu'assasat al-Kutub al-Thaqafiyya, 1406 AH / 1986 CE) .
- An edition edited by Majdi al-Sayyid Ibrahim (Cairo: Maktabat al-Qur'an) .
Answer updated