''Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal'' () is a collection of biographies of

hadith Hadith is the Arabic word for a 'report' or an 'account f an event and refers to the Islamic oral tradition of anecdotes containing the purported words, actions, and the silent approvals of the Islamic prophet Muhammad or his immediate circle ...

narrators within the Islamic discipline of

biographical evaluation Biographical evaluation (; literally meaning'' 'Knowledge of Men', ''but more commonly understood as the ''Science of Narrators)'' refers to a discipline of Islamic religious studies within hadith terminology in which the narrators of hadith are ...

by the 12th-century

Islamic scholar In Islam, the ''ulama'' ( ; also spelled ''ulema''; ; singular ; feminine singular , plural ) are scholars of Islamic doctrine and law. They are considered the guardians, transmitters, and interpreters of religious knowledge in Islam. "Ulama ...

Abd al-Ghani al-Maqdisi Abd al-Ghani ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi (; 11461203) was a classical Sunni Islamic scholar and a prominent hadith master. He was born in 1146 CE (541 AH) in the village of Jummail in Palestine. He studied with scholars in Damascus; many of whom w ...

Overview

The author collected in this book the names and biographies of all, or most, of the

narrators mentioned in the six canonical hadith collections. These six books are ''

Sahih al-Bukhari () is the first hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar al-Bukhari () in the format, the work is valued by Sunni Muslims, alongside , as the most authentic after the Qur'an. Al-Bukhari organized the bo ...

'' and ''

Sahih Muslim () is the second hadith collection of the Six Books of Sunni Islam. Compiled by Islamic scholar Muslim ibn al-Ḥajjāj () in the format, the work is valued by Sunnis, alongside , as the most important source for Islamic religion after the Q ...

'' and the four ''Sunan'' books by

Al-Nasa'i Al-Nasāʾī (214 – 303 Islamic calendar, AH; 829 – 915 CE), full name Abū ʿAbd al-Raḥmān Aḥmad ibn Shuʿayb ibn ʿAlī ibn Sinān ibn Baḥr ibn Dīnar al-Khurasānī al-Nasāʾī (), was a noted collector of hadith (sayin ...

al-Tirmidhi Muhammad ibn Isa al-Tirmidhi (; 824 – 9 October 892 CE / 209–279 AH), often referred to as Imām at-Termezī/Tirmidhī, was an Islamic scholar, and collector of hadith from Termez (early Khorasan and in present-day Uzbekistan). He w ...

Abu Dawood Abū Dāwūd (Dā’ūd) Sulaymān ibn al-Ash‘ath ibn Isḥāq al-Azdī al-Sijistānī (), commonly known as Abū Dāwūd al-Sijistānī, was a scholar of prophetic hadith who compiled the third of the six "canonical" hadith collections recogn ...

and

Ibn Majah Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Yazīd Ibn Mājah al-Rabʿī al-Qazwīnī (; (b. 209/824, d. 273/887) commonly known as Ibn Mājah, was a Middle Ages, medieval scholar of hadith of Persian people, Persian origin. He compiled the last of Sunni ...

. The biographies relate to the standing of each narrator relating to his narrating ability which is referred to in Arabic as '' `Ilm al-Rijāl''. The book is not currently published and exists in manuscript form in the Al-Zahiriyah Library in

Damascus Damascus ( , ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in the Levant region by population, largest city of Syria. It is the oldest capital in the world and, according to some, the fourth Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. Kno ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. The author ordered his work by mentioning the Companions first, beginning with the ten promised paradise, and then moving on to the Followers, beginning with those named Muhammad and so on. It is four volumes long in manuscript form.

Books derived from ''al-Kamal''

* Yusuf ibn Abd al-Rahman al-Mizzi compiled, edited and abridged this work naming it, '' Tahdhib Al-Kamal fi Asma' Al-rijal''. According to the numbering system of the editor of the published.............. edition, Dr. Bashar 'Awwad Ma'roof, it contains the biographies of 8,640 narrators, including Companions. It has recently been published in both eight volumes and 35 by ''Mu'assasah al-Risalah'' in Beirut, Lebanon; the first edition was 1998. The names of the biography subjects are arranged in alphabetical order in contrast to the original work. *Further, one of al-Mizzi's gifted pupils,

Al-Dhahabi Shams ad-Dīn adh-Dhahabī (), also known as Shams ad-Dīn Abū ʿAbdillāh Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad ibn ʿUthmān ibn Qāymāẓ ibn ʿAbdillāh at-Turkumānī al-Fāriqī ad-Dimashqī (5 October 1274 – 3 February 1348) was an Atharism, Athari ...

, summarised his teacher's work and produced two abridgements: a longer one called ''Tadhhib al-Tahdhib'' and a shorter one called ''Al-Kashif fi Asma' Rijal al-Kutub al-Sittah.''''al-Risalah al-Mustatrafah'', Al-Kattani, Muhammad, pg. 208–9, Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyah, Beirut, seventh edition, 2007. *A similar effort to the work of al-Mizzi was made by Ibn Hajar, who prepared a lengthy but abridged version, with about one-third of the original omitted, entitled ''Tahdhib al-Tahdhib'' It is currently published in numerous editions, most notably in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

in twelve volumes. Later, he abridged this further in a brief work entitled ''Taqrib al-Tahdhib'' mentioning only basic biographical information, such as name, era, date of death and the author's conclusion regarding that narrator's standing as a narrator. *The work of al-Mizzi was again serviced by Safi al-Din Ahmad b. 'Abdullah al-Khazraji (d. after 923) who abridged al-Dhahabi's work, ''Tadhhib al-Tahdhib'', making valuable additions, producing his ''Khulasah al-Tathhib''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Al-Kamal Fi Asma Al-Rijal Books of Sunni Rijal Hadith narrators Sunni hadith collections Sunni literature Religious biographical dictionaries 12th-century Arabic-language books

Overview

Books derived from ''al-Kamal''

See also

References