He also erected in Damascus a house devoted to the hearing and transmission of hadith.
Ibn al-Athir says: “He was the very first to build a dar ḥadith.” (1)
He inspired awe and dignity, commanding profound respect in the hearts of the amirs (2). No one dared sit in his presence unless he first received permission (3); of all the amirs, only Amir Najm al-Din Ayyub (4) would sit without requesting leave. As for Asad al-Din Shirkuh (5), Majd al-Din ibn al-Dayah (6), the deputy of Aleppo, the senior notables (7), and others, they remained standing before him. Yet whenever a jurist or a poor man entered, he would rise, walk a few steps to greet him, seat him beside him on his carpet, and speak with him calmly and respectfully.
Whenever he gave any of them a gift he would say, “These are Allah’s soldiers; through their supplications we are granted victory over the enemy. They have in the public treasury a right many times greater than what I am giving them (8). If they are content to accept only a portion of their due, the favor is theirs, not ours.”
A portion of hadith was once read aloud in his presence that contained the report: “The Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, went out wearing his sword slung over his shoulder” (9)(10). He marveled at how people’s customs had departed from what is authentically related of him (11): soldiers and amirs fasten their swords around their waists (12)(13) instead of carrying them as the Messenger of Allah, peace and blessings be upon him, did. He therefore ordered the troops not to bear their swords except slung in that manner (14).
(1) This assertion merits consideration; for further discussion, see my paternal uncle, the scholar Dr. Naji Ma’rouf (may God have mercy on him), article entitled “The Role of the Hadith before al-Nuriyya” (Bashar).
(2) Manuscript A reads amāri’uhu (his commanders).
(3) Manuscript A reads bi-idhn (by permission).
(4) His obituary appeared previously in Wafāyāt al-A‘yān under the year 568 AH.
(5) His obituary appeared previously in Wafāyāt al-A‘yān under the year 564 AH.
(6) Majd al-Dīn Abū Bakr ibn al-Dayya was a mamlūk of Nūr al-Dīn. He ranked among his highest-status amīrs, and Ḥalab, Hārim and Ja‘bar were part of his iqṭā‘. He died in 565 AH. See ibn al-‘Athīr, al-Kāmil fī’l-tārīkh 9:108; ar-Rawḍatayn 1:180; Mukhtaṣar Abī’l-Fidā’ 3:49.
(7) And other senior figures.
(8) Manuscripts A and B read ad‘āf hādhā (multiples of this); see ar-Rawḍatayn 1:10.
(9) Manuscripts A and B read wa huwa mutaqqalid (and he was wearing it); see ar-Rawḍatayn 1:11.
(10) This is part of a longer hadith recorded by al-Bukhārī (6:114) in the Book of Jihād, chapter “If they are alarmed by night,” and by al-Tirmidhī (no. 1686) in the Book of Jihād, chapter “What was related about marching out when alarmed,” on the authority of Anas ibn Malik, who said: “The Prophet ﷺ was the best, most generous and bravest of people. When the people of Medina were alarmed by a sound at night, he went out to meet them on Abu Ṭalḥa’s horse ‘Uray (while wearing his sword), saying, ‘You did not act with proper caution.’ He added, ‘I found him like a sea,’ meaning the horse. This implies that a military commander must verify reports himself or through someone he appoints.”
(11) Found only in manuscript Ṭ.
(12) Manuscript A reads rabṭ (binding).
(13) Manuscript A reads fī (in).
(14) Manuscript A reads wa lā yaf‘alūna hakdhā (and they do not act thus).