Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani

Ibn Hajar al - ʿ Asqalani, full name Ahmad ibn ʿ Alī ibn Muhammad Shihab ad - Din al - Kinani al - ʿ Asqalani / أحمد بن علي بن محمد شهاب الدين الكناني العسقلاني / Aḥmad b. ʿ Alī b. Muḥammad Šihāb ad - Din al - Kinani al - ʿ Asqalani (* 1372, † February 1449 in Cairo ) was one of the most important scientists of Islamic scholarship, known hadith scholars and traditionists, historians, Qadi of Egypt and professor at Al-Azhar University in Cairo.

Life

His family came from ʿ Asqalan - today Ashkelon - north of Gaza City on the Mediterranean coast. After the destruction of the city by Saladin in 1191, the Muslim population fled to Syria and Egypt. The Jewish population emigrated from time to Jerusalem. The ancestors of Ibn Hajar settled first in Alexandria, then in Cairo down. The origin of the name " Ibn Hajar " could not explain the scientist in his own books. Probably did this nickname by which he was famous, even in the generation of his grandfather. After the early death of his father, he was brought up by relatives in Fustat ( Old Cairo ). At the age of eleven he went on a pilgrimage and stayed another year in Mecca to study hadith sciences there. After 1384 he studied in Cairo and Palestine to take part then 1396-1399 in Zabid in Yemen and Mecca in the lectures of that scholar's sizes. After a short stay in Damascus he went to Mecca on again in Yemen and Aden.

After 1403 he lived until his death in Cairo and taught hadith and fiqh. In 1421 he was appointed Deputy Oberkadi and then to Oberkadi over Egypt and Syria. He held this high office - held until end of his life - with a few interruptions. He also held other offices. He was Imam in both the Azhar and in the oldest mosque in the country, named after the conqueror of Egypt ʿ Amr ibn al - ʿ ace in Fustat. As a librarian, he managed the rich collection of the Madrasa al - Mahmudiya in Cairo. Many of these manuscripts cataloged by him with his handwritten notes have been preserved in the Azhar library.

Works

• Fath al - Baari Sharh Saheeh al - bi -Bukhari / فتح الباري بشرح صحيح البخاري / Fatḥu ʾ l -Bari bi- ʾ l - Sharḥ Sahihi Buhari /, The victory of the Creator in the explanation of the " Sahih " of al -Bukhari '

This comprehensive commentary on the above-mentioned work of al -Bukhari is the life work of Ibn Hajar. In the introduction to his comprehensive thirteen volumes commentary he cites those who work reviews the " Sahih ", to which he had the tradition of rights based on the specified Isnade. For, as Ibn Hajar, Isnade - in this case, the tradition way of a book - are " the genealogy of the books" whose precise knowledge is indispensable. He quotes every sentence and every Hadith in " Sahih " cited in the text, in order to first analyze their reported by al -Bukhari tradition way and then to discuss the contents of the relevant legal traditions, theological, historical and philological. Here, Ibn Hajar operated an extensive material of his predecessors from the first centuries of Islamic scholarship, which stood him immediately available.

• Tahdhib Tahdhib al - Kamāl fī Asmaa ʾ ar - ridschāl / تهذيب تهذيب الكمال في أسماء الرجال / Tahḏību tahḏībi ʾ l - Kamāl fī Asmaa ʾ i ʾ r- riǧāl / Summary of the extension of Full over the names of the narrators ' - also briefly Tahdhib at- Tahdhib mentioned.

It is the summary of the comprehensive thirty-five volumes of biographical work of al - Mizzi. It should be noted that Ibn Hajar the term Tahdhib تهذيب in its two meanings used: his work is a summary, while the term in al - Mizzi is to be understood in the sense of expansion. The word " Kamāl " ("The Complete " ) in turn represents the biographical work of Al- Maqdisi, was substantially expanded for the first time by al - Mizzi in his above-mentioned work. The basic work of al - Maqdisi is accessible only in manuscripts.

• Lisan al - Mizan / لسان الميزان /, the tongue of the balance '

Is another biographical work on Hadith narrators, which have not been mentioned in the Tahdhib. The work has been completed the author in 1443 and located in several editions in six volumes ago.

• Ad - Durar al - Kamina fī a ʿ yan al -mi ʾ a ath - Thamina / الدرر الكامنة في أعيان المائة الثامنة / ad - Durar al - Kamina fī a ʿ Yani ʾ l -mi ʾ ati ʾ t- Tamina /, The hidden jewel among the important personalities of the eighth century '

In this comprehensive scholarly biography of the author cites the hadith scholars, politicians, secretaries, and other well-known personalities of his era, including many contemporaries. He evaluates numerous writings of his immediate predecessors from Syria to al -Andalus, including the Universal History of Ibn Khaldun, from. In the first part of this work he cites 5323 figures. In a written supplement to tape adh dhail / الذيل / Ad - Dail / Supplement; Appendix ', which is present as a holograph in the Azhar library where Ibn Hajar had worked until the end of his life, he mentions other 639 public figures of his time. The entries begin in 1399 and end with the year 1419th

• Al - ISABA tamyīz fī as- Sahaba / الإصابة في تمييز الصحابة / al - ISABA fī ʾ tamyīzi S- Sahaba /, the results in the differentiation of the Prophet's companions '

This work, which since the first edition by the Orientalists Aloys Sprenger ( Calcutta from 1854 to 1888 ) was reprinted several times in four volumes in the Orient, is exclusively dedicated to the biography of the companions of Muhammad ( sahaba ) in alphabetical list of their names. The author analyzes in this biographical encyclopedia of numerous books from the first centuries of Islam from, including the Kitab ar - ridda the historian Wathima b. Musa († 851 ), which no longer exists today.

• Al -mu ʿ al - Djam mufahras / المعجم المفهرس / al -mu ʾ l - ʿ ǧamu mufahras /, scholarly lexicon '

Is a collection of titles of works to which Ibn Hajar had received the direct tradition Rights: either through the course of the book by his teacher ( Schaich ) or by himself or by another student, but in his presence. In the work title follows the specification of the Isnade, that is the exact specification of the path tradition for generations to author of that book. This book as a distinct genre of scholarly biography is known under different titles; it first appeared in 1999 in the print. The arrangement of the book corresponds to the Islamic disciplines, beginning with the enumeration and tradition of the hadith collections, Koranic exegesis, history, philosophy, theology and ends with poetry. Such works also called Fahrasa / Fihrist فهرسة, فهرست /, directory '. The author presents in it together those writings that he has received during his studies in the plant lore accurately described by him from his teachers.

Al - Majma ʿ al -mu ʾ assas lil -mu ʿ Djam al - mufahras / المجمع المؤسس للمعجم المفهرس / al - maǧma ʿ al -mu ʾ assas li - ʾ l -mu ʿ ǧam al - mufahras is another fahrasa works, how such collections because of their different titling in to designate the literature generally maintains in which are often put together with location and time, the name of his teacher, and the title of their accrued books. In the work also led scholars to which the author had no real teacher -student relationship, but only a scientific contact.

• Al - Amali al - halabiyya / الأمالي الحلبية / al - Amali ʾ l - ḥalabiyya /, Dictations of Aleppo ' is a small booklet in the manuscript collection of Alexandria, which contains Hadith, Ibn Hajar al - ʿ Asqalani in 1432 in the main mosque had dictated to, and discussed by Aleppo. On the last sheet Ibn Hajar confirmed by hand the accuracy of the tradition rights. These dictations were an essential part of Islamic teaching activities since the early 9th century.

• Al - adschwiba al - dschaliya ʿ at al -as ʾ ila al - Halabiya / الأجوبة الجلية عن الأسئلة الحلبية / al - aǧwiba al - ǧalīya ʿ ani ʾ l -as ʾ ila al - Halabiya /, The clear answers to the questions from Aleppo '. A contemporary of Ibn Hajar in Aleppo is in this little work 39 questions on substantive details of some hadiths in al -Bukhari, which are then answered by the author after receiving the questions from Aleppo in an excerpt because the matter is already in his extensive commentary on al - Bukhari (see above) has been discussed in detail. The print edition of these responses goes back to an established in Mecca copy from the late 15th century.

• INBA ʾ al - ghumr bi- ABNA ʾ al - ʿ umr / إنباء الغمر بأبناء العمر / INBA ʾ u ʾ l - ġumr bi- ABNA ʾ i ʾ l - ʿ umr / news about famous sons of the age ' is a political and literary history of Syria and Egypt, 1371-1446. The work is in two volumes incomplete.

• At the request of his students Ibn Hajar has written two short treatises; one is dedicated to the Egyptian scholar al - Laith ibn Sa ʿ d ( † 791 ), in which he represents the scientific position and handed down by al - Laith famous Hadith in addition to a short biography:
• الرحمة الغيثية بالترجمة الليثية / ar - Rahma al - ġayṯiyya bi- t- tarǧama al - layṯiyya

The second treatise deals with the life and work of the school's founders, ash- Shafi ʿ ī:

• توالي التأسيس بمعالي ابن ادريس / Tawali at- ta ʾ bi -ma ʿ Alī SIS Bni Idris

Both works were published in one volume in 1994 in Cairo.

Effect

His pupil, the famous traditionists and biographer Shams ad -Din as- Sachāwī (d. 1497 ), has shown the life and work of his teacher Ibn Hajar in three volumes: al- Dschawāhir wa - ʾ d- durar tardschamat Schaich al -Islam Ibn Hajar / الجواهر والدرر ترجمة شيخ الإسلام ابن حجر / al - Ǧawāhir wa - ʾ d- durar tarǧamat Saihi ʾ l -Islam Bni Ḥaǧar /, gems and pearl; the biography of the shaykhs of Islam Ibn Hajar ' summarized.