Siyar Aʿlām al-Nubalāʾ - Shams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi - (23/241)

Siyar Aʿlām al-NubalāʾShams al‑Din al‑Dhahabi

from them, yet I do not believe his years can accommodate that.

I add: In 641 AH, at Āmid, al-Sarrāj ʿUmar ibn Shuhānah read to him The Forty of ʿAbd al-Khāliq al-Shahhāmī on the strength of an ijāzah he had received from him—Allah knows best. There is no doubt that the man possessed a jurist’s acumen and must have known for himself whether he had actually reached that earlier period or not. He further claimed to have been born in 537 AH; on that reckoning he would have lived one hundred and twelve years. (1)

Those who narrated from him include Majd al-Dīn Ibn al-ʿAdīm, Shams al-Dīn Ibn al-Zayn, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Tītī al-Āmidī, (2) the two hadith masters al-Dimyāṭī and Ibn al-Ẓāhirī, and a number of others. From the earlier generation, Abū ʿAbd Allah al-Barzalī also transmitted from him.

By ijāzah alone he was heard by Abū al-Maʿālī Ibn al-Bālisī, Abū ʿAbd Allah Ibn al-Dabbāhī, Zaynab bint al-Kamāl, and others.

He died in 649 AH, on the twenty-second of Dhu’l-Ḥijjah.

I have seen our own teachers—al-Dimyāṭī and Ibn al-Ẓāhirī, for example—travel to him, listen to his reports from Ibn Shātil and others, and receive this very ijāzah from him. (3) Among those who granted him authorization were leading scholars, among them:

(1) Al-Dhahabi refers to him in his useful book Ahl al-Mi’a fa-saʿidan (Centenarians and Beyond) and remarks: “Hadith scholars have long hesitated about this man’s age and have thought that the licence (ijaza) belongs to a brother of his who bore the same name. I have examined the document myself: it is ancient, intact, without erasures, and it bears the handwriting of Wajih al-Shahami and other senior figures. Allah alone knows the truth of his case.” — p. 137, ed. Dr. Bashshar Awwad Maʿruf. (2) The author records him in al-Mushtabih, p. 117, saying: “Spelled with two letters tha’ separated by a ya’: the amir Shams al-Din Muhammad, son of al-Sahib Sharaf al-Din ibn al-Tayti, the man of letters; he transmitted to us from Ibn al-Muqayr and al-Nishtibri. His father served as vizier in Mardin, and he himself produced both poetry and prose.” The author also includes his biography in his large Dictionary of His Teachers. (3) The author mentioned this point a short while earlier, so it appears that he has repeated himself here.

عَنْهُم، وَمَا أَظُنُّ سِنَّهُ تَحْتملُ ذَلِكَ. قُلْتُ: قَرَأَ عَلَيْهِ السَّرَّاج عُمَر بن شُحَانَة (الأَرْبَعِيْنَ) لِعَبْدِ الخَالِقِ الشَّحَّامِيِّ فِي سَنَةِ إِحْدَى وَأَرْبَعِيْنَ وَسِتِّ مائَةٍ بِآمِدَ بِإِجَازَتِهِ مِنْهُ - فَاللهُ أَعْلَمُ -؛ وَلاَ رَيْب أَنَّهُ رَجُل فَقِيْه النَّفْس يَدْرِي مِنْ نَفْسِهِ أَنَّهُ كَانَ أَدْرَكَ ذَلِكَ الزَّمَانَ أَو لَا، وَقَدِ ادَّعَى أَنَّهُ وُلِدَ سَنَةَ سَبْعٍ وَثَلاَثِيْنَ، فَعَلَى هَذَا يَكُوْن قَدْ عَاشَ مائَة وَاثْنَيْ عَشَرَ عَاماً (١) . حَدَّثَ عَنْهُ: مَجْد الدِّيْنِ ابْن العَدِيْم، وَشَمْس الدِّيْنِ ابْن الزَّين، وَشَمْس الدِّيْنِ مُحَمَّد بن التِّيْتِيِّ (٢) الآمِدِيّ، وَالحَافِظَان الدِّمْيَاطِيّ وَابْن الظَّاهِرِي، وَطَائِفَة. وَمِنَ القُدَمَاء: أَبُو عَبْدِ اللهِ البِرْزَالِيّ. وَبِالإِجَازَةِ: أَبُو المَعَالِي ابْن البَالِسِيّ، وَأَبُو عَبْدِ اللهِ ابْن الدَّباهِيّ، وَزَيْنَب بِنْت الكَمَالِ، وَآخَرُوْنَ. وَقَدْ تُوُفِّيَ: سَنَةَ تِسْعٍ وَأَرْبَعِيْنَ وَسِتِّ مائَةٍ، فِي الثَّانِي وَالعِشْرِيْنَ مِنْ ذِي الحِجَّةِ. وَرَأَيْت شُيُوْخنَا كَالدِّمْيَاطِيّ وَابْن الظَّاهِرِي قَدِ ارْتحلُوا إِلَيْهِ، وَسَمِعُوا مِنْهُ مِنْ رِوَايَته عَنِ ابْنِ شَاتيل وَغَيْرِهِ، وَسَمِعُوا بِهَذِهِ الإِجَازَة (٣) ؛ فَمِنَ المُجِيْزِينَ لَهُ كِبَارٌ مِنْهُم:

(١) قد ذكره الذهبي في كتابه النافع: " أهل المئة فصاعدا "، وقال: " ما زال المحدثون يترددون - يتوقفون في سن هذا الرجل، ويظنون أن هذه الاجازة لأخ له باسمه، فأنا رأيتها عتيقة سالمة من كشط، فيها خط وجيه الشحامي والكبار، فالله أعلم بحقيقة حاله ". ص ١٣٧ بتحقيق الدكتور بشار عواد معروف. (٢) قيده المؤلف في " المشتبه: ١١٧ " قال: " وبمثناتين بينهما ياء: الأمير شمس الدين محمد ابن الصاحب شرف الدين ابن التيتي الأديب، حدثنا عن ابن المقير والنشتبري، وزر أبوه بماردين، وله النظم والنثر ". وترجمه في معجم شيوخه الكبير. (٣) قد ذكر هذا الامر قبل قليل فكأنه تكرر عليه ﵀.