66 – Abū Ḥātim al-Qazwīnī, Maḥmūd ibn Ḥasan al-Ṭabarī *
The unrivaled scholar, Abū Ḥātim Maḥmūd ibn Ḥasan (1) al-Ṭabarī al-Qazwīnī, a Shāfiʿī jurist, expert in legal theory and inheritance law, and author of numerous works on points of disagreement, jurisprudential principles, and the school’s doctrine (2).
He studied legal theory under Abū Bakr ibn al-Bāqillānī, inheritance law with Ibn al-Labbān, and substantive law with Shaykh Abū Ḥāmid and a group of the shaykhs of Āmul.
Shaykh Abū Isḥāq (3) said, “In all my travels I never benefited from anyone as I benefited from him and from Qāḍī Abū al-Ṭayyib.”
Al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī transmitted to us, Jaʿfar transmitted to us, the Salafī transmitted to us: Abū al-Faraj Muḥammad ibn Abī Ḥātim al-Qazwīnī dictated to us, saying, “My father informed me; Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Nātlī (4) informed us; ʿAbd al-Raḥmān ibn Abī Ḥātim transmitted to us; Yūnus ibn ʿAbd al-Aʿlā transmitted to us,” and then he cited a hadith (5).
(*) Tabaqat al-fuqahaʾ by al-Shirazi, p. 130; Tabyin Kadhib al-muftari, p. 260; Tabaqat al-Shafiʿiyya by Ibn al-Salah, fol. 75a; Tahdhib al-asmaʾ wa-l-lughat, 2/207; Tabaqat of al-Subki, 5/312-314; Tabaqat of al-Isnawi, 2/300-301; Tabaqat of Ibn Hidayat Allah, pp. 145-146; Hadiyat al-ʿarifin, 2/402.
(1) Ibn Hidayat Allah’s Tabaqat reads “al-Husayn” instead of “al-Hasan.”
(2) Al-Subki lists among his works the book Tajrid al-tajrid, which he wrote together with his colleague al-Mahamili; Hadiyat al-ʿarifin attributes to him another work entitled al-Hiyal.
(3) See Tabaqat al-fuqahaʾ, p. 130.
(4) The name is written with a final nun and a taʾ with two dots above it, as Ibn Hajar notes in Tabsir al-muntabih 1/116; cf. al-Lubab 3/286-287.
(5) The author gives no death date, nor does al-Shirazi; we also did not find in his Tabaqat what the editors of al-Subki’s Tabaqat 5/313 cite—namely the years 414 or 415. Al-Nawawi and al-Subki likewise omit it. Al-Isnawi, quoting al-Dhahabi, places the death around 460 AH, while al-Samʿani gives 440 AH, the date adopted by Ibn Hidayat Allah.