224 – The Preacher of Marda, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad al-Maqdisī
The shaykh, imam, jurist, musnid, and preacher: Abū ʿAbd Allāh Muḥammad ibn Ismāʿīl ibn Aḥmad ibn Abī al-Fatḥ al-Maqdisī, al-Nābulusī, the Ḥanbalī, preacher of Marda.
Birth: in that town, around the year 566 AH.
He came to Damascus, devoted himself to study, memorized the Quran, mastered jurisprudence, and received hadith from Yaḥyā al-Thaqafī, Ibn Ṣadaqah al-Ḥarrānī, Aḥmad ibn Ḥamzah al-Mawāzinī, and others.
He later travelled on and heard hadith from Abū al-Qāsim al-Būṣīrī, Ismāʿīl ibn Yāsīn, ʿAlī ibn Ḥamzah, Fāṭimah bint Saʿd al-Khayr, and several more.
Among those who narrated from him were al-Dumyāṭī, al-Fakhr ibn ʿAsākir, Qāḍī Taqī al-Dīn Sulaymān, Qāḍī Sharaf al-Dīn Ḥasan, Shams al-Dīn Muḥammad ibn al-Tāj, Aḥmad ibn ʿAlī—my paternal uncle (1)—Abū ʿAbd Allāh ibn al-Zarrād, al-Taqī Aḥmad ibn al-ʿIzz, Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad al-Zabdānī, al-Zayn Abū Bakr al-Ḥarīrī, Shaykh Aḥmad ibn al-Fakhr, Zaynab bint al-Kamāl, Muḥammad ibn Aḥmad al-Qaṣṣāṣ, Aḥmad ibn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān al-Ṣarḫadī, al-Asad ʿAbd al-Qādir al-ʿĀdilī, and many others. His narrations spread widely in Damascus, and he was indeed an excellent shaykh—may Allah have mercy on him. He later returned to his village and continued to teach hadith there as well.