Al-Dhahabi

Adh- Dhahabi (full name Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Uthman ibn Qaimas ibn Abd Allah al-Dhahabi / محمد بن أحمد بن عثمان بن قيماز بن عبد الله الذهبي / Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿ Uthman b. Qaimāz b. ʿ Abd Allāh ad Dahabí ), often also transcribed as al - Dhahabi; Nickname Shams ad-Din / شمس الدين / Samsu ʾ d- Dīn; (* 1274, † 1348 in Damascus, Syria ) was a famous scholar biographer and historian. His family was Turkmen origin; his great-grandfather lived in the region of Diyarbakır. His grandfather was a carpenter and had lived in Damascus; his father was a well known goldsmith in the city, which he, Gold ' was nicknamed al-Dhahabi from dhahab / ذهب / Dahab /. Adh- Dhahabi himself at first continued his father's trade, and called himself as document his handwritten entries in some manuscripts, Ibn al-Dhahabi ( " son of al-Dhahabi "). His contemporary biographers, however, called him al-Dhahabi.

At the age of eighteen years he devoted himself to the study of the Koran reading ( qira'at ) and the Hadith. Only with the approval of his father, he was at the age of twenty years, his short study trips first in Syria, then begin to Jerusalem, Ramla and Nablus. On his trip, he studied in prominent scholarly circles of Mecca. At the age of 22, he arrived in Alexandria, and then continue his studies in almost all scholarly figures of the time in Cairo. After his return to Damascus he taught as professor of hadith in the Madrasa Umm Salih; However, it has been impossible for him to succeed his teacher al - Mizzi († 1341 ) in the famous Madrasa al - Aschrafiya in Damascus to be. Counter 1340-1342 he went blind, not interrupted his education at various schools but Damascus. During his lifetime he was called " the epoch Hadith-Kenner/Traditionarier " Muhaddith al-' asr / محدث العصر / muḥaddiṯu ʾ l - ʿ ASR. He died in February 1348 and is on the Bab as - Saghir at the gates was buried in Damascus.

Works

Adh- Dhahabi worked in various fields of Islamic sciences. His biographers call 215 work titles in the areas of reading Quran, Hadith, Hadith criticism, Fiqh, questions of faith, scholarly biography and history.

• Ta'rich al - islam wa - wafayat al - maschahir wal- a'lam / تأريخ الإسلام ووفيات المشاهير والأعلام / Ta ʾ Rihu ʾ l -Islam wa - wafayātu ʾ l - mašāhīr wa - ʾ l -a ʿ lām /, history of Islam and the demise of the famous scholars and sizes '.

It is the main work of al-Dhahabi, on which he worked until the last years of life, but which nevertheless remained incomplete because he could not capture all contemporaries biographically. In his chronological structure, beginning with the descent of the Prophet Mohammed and his biography, he puts in a nutshell in the form of annals, the historically significant events of the year is to then biographical imagine the scholar and historic personalities who died in that year. The last entries by the author refer to the year 1300. In subsequent generations students adh Dhahabis have updated the book until the year 1388. The work is now in a new edition (Beirut 2004) in 17 volumes, to around 18 thousand pages ago.

• Al - ʿ fī ibar Chabar you Ghabar / العبر في خبر من غبر / al - ʿ fī ibar Habar you Gabar

Is in many ways a summary of the above-mentioned work. It is arranged chronologically and detects the most important events of 700 years of Islamic history, with a short biography of the most important scholars who have died in those years. The work was written a year after the completion of his "History of Islam", but also includes information that is not obtained in the same. The plant is located in the edition of Salah ad - Din al - Munaǧǧid and Fu ʾ AD Sayyid ago (Kuwait from 1960 to 1961 ).

• Siyar al - a'lam nubala '/ سير أعلام النبلاء / Siyar A ʿ Lami ʾ n ʾ nubalā /, biography of distinguished scholars sizes '

It is a literary- biographical interesting and rich of information summary of the above-mentioned work, in the adh - Dhahabi describes only the Vita of scholars in chronological order and without reference to the historical events of their time. The plant is located since 1981 (Beirut ) in the now 7th edition (1990 ) in 24 volumes index volume in the edition of Šu ʿ aib al - Arna ʾ ut and Husayn al - Asad ago.

• Tadhhib at- Tahdhib / تذهيب التهذيب / Taḏhību ʾ ​​t- Tahdib /, gilding the extension '

This work is the culmination of a number of previous biographies of narrators of Hadith. The parent wrote the Damascene 'Abd al - Ghani ibn Abd al - Wahid al- Maqdisi († 1203) under the title al - Kamal fi Asma ' al- ridschal / الكمال في أسماء الرجال / al - Kamāl fī Asmaa ʾ i ʾ r- riǧāl /, the Full over the names of the men capability, meaning hadith narrators '. In this work, the author together the biographies of those narrators that appear in the six canonical hadith collections.

For this work then wrote the aforementioned teacher adh Dhahabis, the Damascus al - Mizzi completed and named it: Tahdhib al - Kamal fi Asma ' al- ridschal تهذيب الكمال في أسماء الرجال / Tahdib al - Kamāl fī Asmaa ʾ i ʾ r- riǧāl /, extension of the Full ... etc. '; this work is in the 35 volumes in the print edition (Beirut 1984-1992 ).

Adh- Dhahabi based in his biographical work called here " gilding the extension" to this work of his teacher, closes some gaps in al - Mizzi and complements his biography with other scholars name.

• Mizan al - i'tidal fi Naqd ar - ridschal / ميزان الاعتدال في نقد الرجال / Mīzānu ʾ l -i ʿ fī Tidal Naqd ar - riǧāl /, the scale of temperance in the critique of tradition Aryans '

The three -volume work continues the tradition of hadith criticism and biographical presentation of narrators based on earlier writings of this genre. Besides the most important life data of the authors also documented some reprehensible Hadith, which are connected with the name of the narrator. This book has been printed several times because of its importance for the study of Hadith literature in the Orient.

• Al - muschtabah fī ʾ r- ridschāl Asmaa wa - i -him -him ansābi / المشتبه في الرجال أسمائهم وأنسابهم / al - muštabah fī ʾ r- riǧāl Asmaa wa - i -him -him ansābi

In this two-volume work puts together the author's name and the lineage of tradition Aryans, which have been handed controversial and contain dubious elements ( muštabah ). He recommends his students in the Introduction, such bodies in the name stands correct to characterize the reduction of vowels. In the introduction ad Dahabí also names four sources in this genus to which it resorts. The work is in the ʿ Alī Muḥammad edition of al - Biǧāwī (Cairo 1962).

• Ma'rifat al - Qurra 'al- kibar ' ala at- Tabaqat wal- a'sar / معرفة القراء الكبار على الطبقات والأعصار / Ma ʿ rifatu ʾ l - Qurra ʾ i ʾ l - Kibar ʿ alā ʾ t- Tabaqat wa - ʾ l -a ʿ SAR /, knowledge of large Koran readers for classes and eras ordered '

This two-volume work is dedicated to the most famous Quran readers of the entire Islamic Empire and is arranged chronologically. It starts with the third caliph Uthman ibn Affan, whose name is connected with the first "Koran editors " and ends with the entry of contemporary Koran readers who have died in the first years of the 14th century. The author also makes use of in this work of scholarly biographies of his predecessors from both the Islamic East and North Africa and al -Andalus. The work was first published in 1967 in Cairo. A new edition was made by Šu ʿ aib al - Arna ʾ ut et alii in 1984 (Mu ʾ assasat ar - Risala. Beirut ).

• Mu ʿ al- Djam schuyūch; al -Mu ʿ Djam al -Kabeer / معجم الشيوخ; المعجم الكبير / Mu ʿ ǧam aš - šuyūḫ; al -Mu ʿ ǧam al -Kabeer /, Encyclopedia of teachers; the big lexicon ' in two volumes in 1040 lists scholars in alphabetical order, where the author studied islam scientific disciplines. The work is published in Ta ʾ if aṭ in 1988.

• Mu ʿ Djam muhaddithī al-Dhahabi / معجم محدثي الذهبي / Mu ʿ ǧam muḥaddiṯī ʾ d- Dahabí /, Encyclopedia of the Aryan tradition of adh - Dhahabi '

In this small book of about 200 pages ( printed in Beirut in 1993 ) is al-Dhahabi in alphabetical order the names of his many teachers together who have specialized as traditionists on the tradition of hadith literature. Provided with a short biography of the author cites 382 teachers of Hadith in whose circle he had studied.