and The Men of al-Nasāʾī, compiled by a group of Maghribī scholars (1); as well as The Men of the Six—the two Ṣaḥīḥs, Abū Dāwūd, al-Tirmidhī, al-Nasāʾī and Ibn Mājah (2)—authored by ʿAbd al-Ghanī al-Maqdisī in his book al-Kamāl (3)(4), a work later refined by al-Mizzī in Tahdhīb al-Kamāl (5).
I subsequently produced an abridgement of that work, added a great deal of new material to it, and entitled it Tahdhīb al-Tahdhīb (6). Together with (7) the supplementary material it contains (8), the abridgement comes to roughly one-third the length of the original (9).
[Knowledge of Single Names]
Another important field is the identification of individual (i.e., non-patronymic) names. On this subject the ḥāfiẓ Abū Bakr Aḥmad ibn Hārūn al-Bardījī (10)(11) composed a dedicated treatise, in which he listed
(1) Among them are: Abu Ali al-Jayyani (d. 498 AH), Abd al-Aziz b. Muhammad al-Dawraqi (d. 524 AH), Abd Allah b. Sulayman al-Andalusi (d. 612 AH), and Muhammad b. Ismail b. Khalfun al-Andalusi (d. 636 AH). See: Taklima li-Kitab al-Sila by Ibn al-Abbar, 2/288; Asma Shuyukh Malik by Ibn Khalfun, p. 198; Barnamaj al-Ruayni, p. 55; al-Risala al-Mustatrafa by al-Kattani, p. 208; Shajarat al-Nur al-Zakiyya by Muhammad b. Makhluf, 1/182; Qada al-Watar, p. 1580.
(2) In manuscripts A, B, D, H, T, Y, and K the word appears as “Maja”.
(3) Manuscript T reads “kitab”.
(4) Manuscripts A, B, C, D, H, Z, T, and M read “al-Ikmal”; this is an error, and the work is in print.
(5) Its correct title is Tahdhib al-Kamal fi Asma al-Rijal, and it is published.
(6) It too has been published.
(7) Manuscripts H and Ḥ read “wa jamiʿu” instead of “wa jaʾa maʿa”.
(8) Manuscripts Y and K read “al-ziyadah”.
(9) In the margin of manuscript A, in the author’s own hand, one finds: “then it was heard, read aloud by Nur al-Din.”
(10) Manuscript W adds the word “bin”.
(11) Manuscripts H and K have “al-Bardiji”; a marginal note on Y gives “al-Bardai”. Another marginal note on H states: “… (A) the author—may Allah have mercy on him—writes: al-Bardiji with an unpointed dal, and al-Bardhiji with a dotted dhal.” See Muʿjam al-Buldan, 1/378.
(A) Unclear word.
He is Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Harun b. Ruh al-Bardiji, the hadith scholar (hafiz, d. 301 AH); see Siyar Aʿlam al-Nubalaʾ, 14/122.