298 – Ibn al-Haddhaʾ, Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad al-Tamīmī
The erudite ḥadīth scholar Abū ʿAbd Allah Muḥammad b. Yaḥyā b. Aḥmad al-Tamīmī, a Cordovan Mālikī, better known as Ibn al-Haddhaʾ. (1)
He transmitted ḥadīth from Aḥmad b. Thābit al-Taghlibī, Abū ʿĪsā al-Laythī, Ibn al-Qūṭiyya, Ibn ʿAwn Allah, and—while on ḥajj—he heard from Muḥammad b. ʿAlī al-Udfuwī, Abū al-Qāsim ʿAbd al-Raḥmān b. ʿAbd Allah al-Jawhawī, and several others.
He was well-versed in fiqh and ḥadīth.
He kept company with Abū Muḥammad al-Aṣīlī. (2)
His son Abū ʿUmar Aḥmad b. al-Haddhaʾ said, “My father possessed knowledge of ḥadīth, jurisprudence, and dream interpretation.”
He composed the book al-Inbāh ʿan Asmāʾ Allah (3) and instructed that it be buried upon his chest, as well as a work entitled al-Ruʾyā in ten volumes and Siyar al-Khuṭabāʾ in two volumes. (4)
He served as judge in Seville and later in Zaragoza, where he died in Ramadan of the year six
(*) Taritib al-Madarik 4/733–734; Fihrist Ibn Khayr 93, 242, 267; al-Sila 2/505–507; Bughyat al-Multamis 146; Muʿjam al-Udabaʾ 19/108–109; al-ʿIbar 3/122; ʿUyun al-Tawarikh 12/180/1; al-Wafi bi-l-Wafayat 5/196; Mirʾat al-Janan 3/29; al-Dibaj al-Mudhahhab 2/237–238; al-Nujum al-Zahira 4/264; Shadharat al-Dhahab 3/206; Hadiyyat al-ʿArifin 2/63; Shajarat al-Nur 1/112.
(1) Qadi ʿIyad notes that the family name is written al-Hadhaʾ, with a dotted dhal, yet Ibn ʿAfif reports that they themselves reject this and insist on an undotted dal, deriving it from hadaaʾ al-ibil (chanting to urge camels). They add that their forefather was the Prophet’s camel-driver. Because the first of them settled in the Cordoban suburb of the shoemakers (hadhdhaʾin), people confused the two letters and corrupted the nisba.
(2) See Taritib al-Madarik 4/733.
(3) Taritib al-Madarik, al-Sila, and al-Dibaj record the title as al-Anbaʾ ʿala Asmaʾ Allah (Notification concerning the Names of God), whereas Yaqut’s Muʿjam reads al-Anbaʾ bi-Maʿani al-Asmaʾ (Explanation of the Meanings of the Names).
(4) He also composed Taʿrif man Dhukira fi Muwattaʾ Malik min al-Rijal wa-l-Nisaʾ (Identification of the Men and Women Mentioned in Malik’s Muwatta). A manuscript is preserved in the Qarawiyyin Library, Fez, nos. 118 and 176. See Fuat Sezgin, Geschichte, 1/164.