one of Imām al-Shāfiʿī’s companions, or one of the eminent scholars who authored works in the madhhab.
At the very beginning he gives a biography of the school’s Imām, Muḥammad ibn Idrīs al-Shāfiʿī (d. 205 AH), and says:
“We have devoted to him an extensive biography at the head of our book, Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyīn.” (1)
He then adds: “We have included a good selection of his poetry on the Sunnah, his remarks about it, and the maxims and admonitions he uttered, in what we wrote at the beginning of Ṭabaqāt al-Shāfiʿiyyah.” (2)
A manuscript copy of the work is held at the Institute of Manuscripts, Arab League, Cairo. We have also examined 111 folios at the Islamic University, photographed from the Kattānī Library in Rabat. (3)
A recent Egyptian edition has appeared, edited by Muḥammad ʿAlī Zaynhum and Dr. Aḥmad ʿUmar Hāshim. A separate section has been published under the title “The Juristic Issues in Which Imām al-Shāfiʿī Alone Differed from the Other Imams,” by Dr. Ibrāhīm Ṣanadqajī, Maktabat al-ʿUlūm wa-l-Ḥikam. Dr. Khalīl Ibrāhīm Mullā Khāṭir has also edited “The Merits of Imām al-Shāfiʿī,” issued by the al-Shāfiʿī Library, 1412 AH. (4)
B – Lost Works (5):
1 – al-Kawākib al-Darārī fī’l-Tārīkh. A biographical work cited by Ḥājjī Khalīfah in Kashf al-Ẓunūn (2/1521) and by al-Baghdādī in Hadiyat al-ʿĀrifīn (1/215). Both remark: “Ibn Kathīr extracted it from his larger history.” It consists of three volumes; no trace of it appears in the manuscript catalogues except for volume three, preserved in Turkey—İstanbul Public Library, no. 5016.
2 – The Biography of Abū Bakr al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him). Ibn Kathīr mentions this work in al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya at various points, and says of it (3/224, 231): “We have set forth the biography of al-Ṣiddīq (may Allah be pleased with him), his life, his days, the hadith he transmitted, and the rulings he reported, in a single volume; to Allah belong all praise and favor.” He alludes to it as well in the Tafsīr (4/224) and in Ikhtiṣār ʿUlūm al-Ḥadīth (p. 183).
3 – The Biography of ʿUmar ibn al-Khaṭṭāb (may Allah be pleased with him). Ibn Kathīr refers to it in al-Bidāya wa-l-Nihāya (10/28) and elsewhere, and, speaking of Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, says: “We have explained how he embraced Islam in the book we devoted to his biography…"