Ibn al-ʿImād () (1623-1679), full name ʿAbd al-Ḥayy bin Aḥmad bin Muḥammad ibn al-ʿImād al-ʿAkarī al-Ḥanbalī Abū al-Falāḥ (), was a
Syrian
Syrians () are the majority inhabitants of Syria, indigenous to the Levant, most of whom have Arabic, especially its Levantine and Mesopotamian dialects, as a mother tongue. The cultural and linguistic heritage of the Syrian people is a blend ...
Muslim
Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...
historian and
faqih of the
Hanbali school
The Hanbali school or Hanbalism is one of the four major schools of Islamic jurisprudence, belonging to the Ahl al-Hadith tradition within Sunni Islam. It is named after and based on the teachings of the 9th-century scholar, jurist and traditio ...
.
Life
Born in the
Al-Salihiyah quarter of
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 ...
, he lived in
Cairo
Cairo ( ; , ) is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Egypt and the Cairo Governorate, being home to more than 10 million people. It is also part of the List of urban agglomerations in Africa, largest urban agglomeration in Africa, L ...
for a long period, where he studied under Sultan al-Mazzahi, Nur al-Din Shabramallasi, Shihab al-Din al-Qalyubi, and others, before returning to Damascus to teach. His students included Muhammad ibn Fadlallah al-Muhibbi and Mustafa al-Hamawi. Ibn al-ʿImad died while undertaking the
Hajj
Hajj (; ; also spelled Hadj, Haj or Haji) is an annual Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the holiest city for Muslims. Hajj is a mandatory religious duty for capable Muslims that must be carried out at least once in their lifetim ...
and was buried in
Mecca
Mecca, officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, is the capital of Mecca Province in the Hejaz region of western Saudi Arabia; it is the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red Sea, in a narrow valley above ...
.
He was primarily known for his lengthy
biographical dictionary
A biographical dictionary is a type of encyclopedic dictionary limited to biographical information. Many attempt to cover the major personalities of a country (with limitations, such as living persons only, in ''Who's Who'', or deceased people o ...
''Shadharāt al-dhahab fī akhbār man dhahab'' ("Fragments of Gold in the Accounts of Those Who Have Departed"), completed in 1670, and covers the first ten centuries of Islamic history. It focuses on providing detailed obituary notices and is an important source in
Islamic studies
Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam, which is analogous to related fields such as Jewish studies and Quranic studies. Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world. In this multidiscipli ...
.
[F. Rosenthal. '']Encyclopedia of Islam
The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is a reference work that facilitates the academic study of Islam. It is published by Brill and provides information on various aspects of Islam and the Islamic world. It is considered to be the standard ...
'', 2nd ed, Brill. "Ibn al-ʿImād", Vol. 3, p. 807.
Works
*''Shadharāt al-dhahab fī akhbār man dhahab'' (); (
Al-Qāhira, Maktaba al-Qudsī, 1931-1932)
*''Sharḥ matn al-muntahá fī fiqh al-Ḥanābilah''
*''Sharḥ badīʿiyyat Ibn Ḥijjah''
References
External links
Ibn al-ʿImād's works(in Arabic)
1623 births
1679 deaths
17th-century Arab people
17th-century biographers
17th-century Muslim scholars of Islam
17th-century historians
Arab Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Hadith scholars
Hanbalis
Encyclopedists from the Ottoman Empire
Writers from Damascus
Sunni Muslim scholars of Islam
Syrian scholars
Supporters of Ibn Arabi
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