one of the foremost ḥuffāẓ of the age, a tireless itinerant who traversed the lands in search of knowledge. He authored numerous works and produced extensive commentaries on many aḥādīth—may Allah Most High have mercy on him. (1)
Abū (2) al-Qāsim—also known as Abū Zayd—ʿAbd al-Raḥmān, son of the preacher Abū Muḥammad ʿAbd Allāh, son of the preacher Abū ʿAmr (3) Aḥmad (4) ibn (5) Abī al-Ḥasan Aṣbagh ibn Ḥusayn ibn Saʿdūn ibn Riḍwān ibn Futūḥ, the first of the family to settle in al-Andalus, al-Khathʿamī al-Suhaylī (6): the judge (7) Ibn Khallikān (8) relates from [Ibn Diḥyah] (9) that the shaykh dictated his lineage to him exactly in this form.
Ibn Khallikān (10) further notes: “Al-Suhaylī is an attribution to a village near Málaga called Suhayl (11); the star Suhayl (Canopus) can be seen nowhere in that region except from the summit of a lofty mountain adjacent to the village, [and so it took its name from the star] (12).”
He was born in 508 AH. He memorised the Quran (13) and applied himself to learning until he excelled, surpassing the scholars of his era by virtue of the power of his natural talent (14), the sharpness of his intellect, and the excellence of his compositions (15). Despite all this, he was blind. Among his works is al-Rawḍ al-Unuf, wherein he records a wealth of subtle observations.
(1) Found only in manuscript A.
(2) In manuscript B, before it: ‘al-Suhaili said’; in T: ‘al-Suhaili’.
(3) In B: ‘Abu ʿAmr’.
(4) Not in T.
(5) Not in B.
(6) His biography appears in Muʿjam al-Buldan (Suhail), Inbāh al-Ruwāt (vol. 2, p. 162), Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (vol. 3, pp. 143–144), Tārīkh al-Islām (vol. 12, pp. 731–732), al-ʿIbar (vol. 4, p. 244)—Beirut ed. (vol. 3, p. 82), Tadhkira al-Huffāẓ (1348 AH), Nukat al-Humayyan (p. 187), Mirʾāt al-Jinān (vol. 3, p. 422), and al-Dībāj al-Madhhab (pp. 150–151).
(7) Found only in T.
(8) Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (vol. 3, p. 143).
(9) Found only in A. Ibn Dihya is Abū al-Khaṭṭāb ʿUmar ibn al-Ḥasan ibn ʿAlī ibn Muḥammad al-Jumayyil ibn Farḥ ibn Khalaf al-Kalbī, known as Dhul-Nasabayn al-Andalusī al-Balansī al-Ḥāfiẓ (his lineage traces back to Dihya al-Kalbī, companion of the Prophet ﷺ). He was born in 544, 546, or 548 AH and studied under Andalusian scholars such as Ibn Zarqūn, Ibn Bushqwal, and Ibn al-Jadd. He then traveled to the Maghreb and the East, taking knowledge from their scholars, and heard ḥadīth in Baghdad from some students of Ibn al-Ḥusayn; in Isfahan from Abū Jaʿfar al-Ṣaydilānī; in Nishapur from al-Farāwī; among many others. He died in 633 AH. His biography appears in Mirʾāt az-Zamān (p. 698), Zayl al-Rawdatayn (p. 163), Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (vol. 3, pp. 448–450), al-ʿIbar (vol. 5, p. 134)—Beirut ed. (vol. 3, p. 217), Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl (vol. 3, p. 186), and Mirʾāt al-Jinān (vol. 4, p. 84).
(10) In T their form is ‘al-’. Wafayāt al-Aʿyān (vol. 3, p. 144).
(11) Muʿjam al-Buldan (Suhail).
(12) In T their placement reads: ‘and it is one of the villages of the Maghreb where al-Suhaili was born.’
(13) In T: ‘al-qirāʾāt’.
(14) In A: ‘al-fahm’.
(15) In T: ‘al-tasnīf, and this is by the grace and mercy of Allah Most High.’