Sahhih Nuskhatak min Tahdhib al-Kamal
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Dar al-Muhaddithin
Sahhih Nuskhatak min Tahdhib al-Kamal (Correct Your Copy of Tahdhib al-Kamal) is a critical treatise written by the contemporary Egyptian researcher Eid Fahmi (b. 1392 AH / 1973 CE) . The book compiles textual corrections, vocalization adjustments, and critical emendations on the printed edition of al-Mizzi’s biographical dictionary Tahdhib al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal, which was published by Mu'assasat al-Risala under the editorship of Dr. Bashshar Awwad Ma'ruf .
Background and Purpose
The author, Eid Fahmi Muhammad Ali, studied Arabic and Oriental languages at Alexandria University and completed pre-master's studies at the Faculty of Dar al-Ulum, Cairo University, working extensively as a manuscript researcher and editor .
In the introduction to Sahhih Nuskhatak min Tahdhib al-Kamal, Fahmi explains that although the Mu'assasat al-Risala edition of Tahdhib al-Kamal achieved widespread circulation and was initially assumed to be exceptionally precise, a close examination revealed numerous editorial shortcomings, textual corruptions (tashif), and critical mistakes in its text and apparatus . The work was written to alert students of hadith and biographical literature (ilm al-rijal) to these errors and provide the necessary corrections based on classical reference works .
Content and Critical Focus
The author divides his critical introduction into several distinct methodological categories before presenting the individual entry-by-entry corrections:
- Orthographic and Scribal Rules: Fahmi notes inconsistencies in spelling, such as the editor's failure to adhere to stated rules regarding the diacritical dotting of final ya', leading to confusion between nominal and adjectival forms (e.g., printing صدى instead of صُدَيّ) .
- Textual Vocalization and Grammatical Errors: He highlights numerous mistakes where accusative, nominative, or genitive endings were erroneously interchanged, as well as lexical misreadings throughout the biographical texts .
- Reference to Works on Ambiguous Names (Kutub al-Mushtabah): Fahmi argues that despite claims of rigorous consultation of standard authorities on homonymous and orthographically similar names—such as al-Ikmal by Ibn Makula, Ikmal al-Ikmal by Ibn Nuqtah, al-Mushtabah by al-Dhahabi, Tawdih al-Mushtabah by Ibn Nasir al-Din, and Tabsir al-Muntabih by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani—the edition frequently left incorrect readings intact .
- Diacritics of Proper Names and Nisbas: The book points out misvocalized names—such as vocalizing Qays ibn 'Ubad as 'Abbad contrary to the consensus of hadith scholars—and distorted geographical and genealogical attributions (ansab), such as turning al-Sami into al-Shami or al-Andinawi into al-Ansari .
- Critique of Footnotes and Biographical Conflations: Fahmi examines the edition's extensive marginal apparatus, detailing misprints, flawed volume and page citations (such as citing volume 21 of a work printed in only four volumes), and severe conflations where evaluation statements (jarh wa-ta'dil) or death dates belonging to one narrator were misplaced under another possessing a similar name (such as mixing up statements concerning Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla with those on his father 'Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi Layla) .
Structure
The body of the book is arranged systematically according to the volumes and pages of the 35-volume printed edition of Tahdhib al-Kamal . Under each biography, the author specifies the exact volume, page, and line number of the error, quotes the misprinted passage, provides the correct reading (sawabuhu), and adduces supporting evidence from primary sources such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal's al-'Ilal wa-Ma'rifat al-Rijal, al-Bukhari's al-Tarikh al-Kabir, Ibn Hibban's al-Thiqat, and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi's Tarikh Baghdad .
Answer updated