Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal

Al-Kamal fi Asma' al-Rijal Arabic:(الكمال في أسماء الرجال) is a multi-volume collection of biographies by the 12th century Islamic scholar Abd al-Ghani Abd al-Wahid al-Maqdisi. The author collected in this book the names and biographies of all, or most, of the hadith narrators mentioned in the six prrominent collections of hadith. These six books include the two Sahihs by Bukhari and Muslim and the four Sunan books by Nasa'i, Tirmithi, Abu Dawood and Ibn Majah. The biographies relate to the standing of each narrator relating to his narrating ability which is referred to in Arabic as Ilm al-Rijal. The book is not currently published and exists in manuscript form in the Thahiriyah Library in Damascus, Syria. The author ordered his work by mentioning the Companions first, beginning with the ten promised paradise, and then moving on to the Followers named Muhammad and so on. It is four volumes long. [ Al-Albani, Muhammad, "Fahras Makhtutat Dar al-Kutub al-Thahiriyah", pg. 472, Maktabah al-Ma'arif, Riyadh, K.S.A., first edition, 2001.]

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 Doctor Bashar 'Awwad Ma'roof, it contains a biography for 8,640 narrators, including Companions. [ Mu'assasah al-Risalah, Beirut, Lebanon, first edition, 1998. (Published in eight volumes, with an earlier edition by the same company in 35. ] The names of the biography subjects are arranged in alphabetical order in contrast to the original work. [http://www.usc.edu/dept/MSA/fundamentals/hadithsunnah/scienceofhadith/asa3.html USC-MSA Compendium of Muslim Texts ] ]

Further, one of al-Mizzi's gifted pupils, Al-Dhahabi, 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 .

A similar effort to the work of al-Mizzi was made by Ibn Hajar Asqalani, who prepared a lengthy but abridged version, with about one- third of the original omitted, also entitled Tahdhib al-Tahdhib. [online: [http://dictionary.al-islam.com/arb/Dicts/SelDict.asp?RDF=1&TL=1&Theme=26&DI=26] ] It is currently published in numerous editions, most notably in India in twelve volumes. Later, he abridged this further in a brief work entitled Taqrib al-Tahdhib .

The work of al-Mizzi was again summarised by al-Khazraji (Safi al-Din Ahmad b. 'Abdullah, d. after 923) who also made valuable additions, producing his Khulasah al-Tahthib. [ This entire section can be found in: Al-Kattani, Muhammad, "al-Risalah al-Mustatrafah", pg. 208-9, Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyah, Beirut, seventh edition, 2007.] .

ee also

*List of Sunni books

References