Fourth: His Family

We begin by acquainting ourselves with the members of the family from which he sprang. They are:

[His Father]
His son relates:

"The preacher Shihāb al-Dīn Abū Ḥafṣ ʿUmar ibn Kathīr was born around 640 AH. He pursued learning with his maternal uncles, the Banū ʿUqbah, in Buṣrā, where he studied al-Bidāyah according to the Ḥanafī school, memorized Jumal al-Zajjājī, and devoted himself to grammar, Arabic philology, and language. He committed to memory the poetry of the Arabs and came to compose excellent, refined, and eloquent verse in praise, elegy, and—only rarely—satire. He taught in the schools of Buṣrā at the Camel’s Resting-Place (1) north of the town, a site people still visit, though God knows best its authenticity. Later he moved to the pulpit of al-Qurayyah east of Buṣrā, adopted the Shāfiʿī school, and studied under al-Nawawī and Shaykh Taqī al-Dīn al-Fazārī—who, as our teacher the erudite Ibn al-Zamalkānī informed me, used to honor and revere him. He remained there for about twelve years, then transferred to the pulpit of Majdal, the village of my mother’s family. He stayed there a long while in ease and sufficiency, reciting the Qur’an abundantly. His sermons were excellent, his words carried weight, and the people held him in high regard for his piety, eloquence, and pleasant delivery. He preferred rural life, finding in it gentleness and lawful provision for himself and his dependents. My father died in Jumādā al-Ūlā 703 AH in the village of Majdal and was buried in its northern cemetery near the olive tree (2)."

[His Brothers and Sisters]
We continue to listen to the ḥadīth master Ibn Kathīr as he speaks about his brothers and sisters:

"Several children were born to my father—some to my mother and some to the wife before her. The eldest was Ismāʿīl, followed by Yūnus and then Idrīs. From my mother came ʿAbd al-Wahhāb, ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, and several sisters. I was the youngest, and I was given the name Ismāʿīl after my brother Ismāʿīl, who had come to Damascus, devoted himself to study there after memorizing the Qur’an under our father, read an introductory grammar text, memorized al-Tanbīh and its commentary with the eminent Taj al-Dīn al-Fazārī, and mastered al-Muntakhab in the principles of jurisprudence, as our teacher Ibn al-Zamalkānī told me. Then he fell from the roof of the Shāmiyyah al-Barrāniyyah madrasa, lingered for several days, and died. My father grieved for him deeply and elegized him in many verses. When I was born afterward, he named me…"