Al-Ḥumaydī

Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Abi Nasr Futuh ibn Abd Allah ibn Futuh ibn Humayd ibn Yasil,[1] most commonly known as al-Humaydi Al-saboni, was an Andalusian scholar of history and Islamic studies of Arab origin.[1]

For the Arab jurist, see Abdallah ibn al-Zubayr al-Humaydi. For the emir of Baalbek, see Saʿd al-Din al-Humaidi.

al-Humaydi
Personal
Born	Muhammad al-Azdi 1029 /420 AH Majorca, Taifa of Dénia
Died	1095 /488 AH Baghdad, Great Seljuq Empire
Religion	Islam
Denomination	Sunni
Jurisprudence	Zahiri
Muslim leader
Influenced by Ibn Hazm, Ibn 'Abd al-Barr
Arabic name
Personal (Ism)	Muḥammad
Patronymic (Nasab)	ibn Abī Naṣr al-Fattūḥ bin Abd Allah bin Futtuh bin Humayd bin Yasil al-Azdi
Teknonymic (Kunya)	Abu Abd Allah
Toponymic (Nisba)	Al-Humaydi; Al-Andalusi

Life

Humaydi's family belonged to the Arab Azd tribe from Yemen.[1] According to the Encyclopedia of Islam, his father was born in al-Rusafa, a suburb of Córdoba.[1] Due to civil strife at the time, Humaydi's father moved to the island of Majorca, where Humaydi was born in 1029AD.[2]

While in Spain, Humaydi was a student of Ibn 'Abd al-Barr and both a student and friend of Ibn Hazm, from whom Humaydi took his Zahirite views in Muslim jurisprudence.[3][4] Due to persecution of Zahirites in Al-Andalus by the rival Malikites at the time, Humaydi fled from Spain for good in 1056.[2] Initially, he went to Mecca and performed the Muslim pilgrimage before traveling to Tunisia, Egypt and Damascus to pursue Hadith studies. Like many scholars of that field, Humaydi frequently worked with manuscripts written in different eras and was thus an outstanding scholar in the fields of history, Arabic grammar and lexicography as well.[5]

Eventually, Humaydi settled down in Baghdad, where the Zahirite rite had once been the official law of the land. While not enjoying state sponsorship, his views did receive tolerance as opposed to the outright persecution from which Humaydi had escaped.[2] He died in the city in 1095.[5]

Works

Humaydi was famous for his biography of the notables of Islamic Spain, entitled Jadhwat al-muqtabis fī tārīkh ʻulamāʼ al-Andalus (جذوة المقتبس فى ذكر ولاة الاندلس ) OCLC 13643176. He composed the book while in Baghdad on request of his friends, writing entirely from memory without any other written sources.[2] The book is considered the earliest primary source to mention Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi,[6] and an important primary source for the life of Ziryab.

Humaydi's historical works are one of the main Arabic primary sources on the Pisan–Genoese expeditions to Sardinia in the early 11th century,[7] largely considered precursors to the Crusades.[8]

In the field of hadith, Humaydi is credited with inventing the genre of combining multiple independent books of hadith into bound collections, a style of cataloging which would gain even more popularity in the 12th century.[3] His books on hadith are also considered significant to modern attempts at critical reevaluations, especially al-Jamʻ bayna al-Ṣaḥīḥayn (الجمع بين الصحيحين) OCLC 41454057 his linguistic commentary on the two most important canonical works, Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim.[9]

Edited works

• al-Dhahab al-masbuk fi wa'z al-muluk. Eds. Abu Abd al-Rahman Ibn Aqil al-Zahiri and Dr. Abd al-Halim Uways. Riyadh: Dar Alam al-Kutub, 1982. 235 pages. Kings and rulers.[10]
• El Tafsir al-gharib ma fi al-Sahihayn de el Humaydi. Ed. Z.M.S. 'Abd al-'Aziz (PhD dissertation). Complutense University of Madrid, 1989. Based on a 1995 reprint of Humaydi's original from Maktabat al-Sunna in Cairo.[9]

Citations

1. Huici, Miranda, A. (2012). "al- Ḥumaydī". In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.). The Encyclopedia of Islam, SECOND. BRILL Online. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_SIM_2952.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
2. William Montgomery Watt and Pierre Chacha, A History of Islamic Spain, pg. 133. Edingburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2001.
3. Fierro, pg. 73.
4. Mohammad Sharif Khan and Mohammad Anwar Saleem, Muslim Philosophy And Philosophers, pg. 35. New Delhi: Ashish Publishing House, 1994.
5. Maribel Fierro, Local and global in Hadith literature: The case of al-Andalus. Taken from The Transmission and Dynamics of the Textual Sources of Islam, pg. 67. Eds. Nicolet Boekhoff-van der Voort, Kees Versteegh and Joas Wagemakers. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2011.
6. Sami Khalaf Hamarneh and Glenn Sonnedecker, A Pharmaceutical View of Abulcasis Al-Zahrāwī in Moorish Spain, pg. 20. Leiden: Brill Publishers, 1963.
7. Travis Bruce. "The Politics of Violence and Trade: Denia and Pisa in the Eleventh Century". Journal of Medieval History, vol. 32, pgs. 127-142. 2006.
8. Christopher Tyerman, God's War: A New History of the Crusades, pg. 55. London: Penguin Books, 2006.
9. Fierro, pg. 68.
10. Kolej Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Selangor, Title: الذهب المسبوك في وعظ الملوك / Abi 'Abdu'Llah Muhammad Abi Nasr al-Humaydi ; edited by Abu 'Abd al-Rahman ibn 'Aqil al-Zahiri and Dr. 'Abd al-Halim 'Uways Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine.