Zain al-Din al-'Iraqi

Although the sources do not provide extensive detail regarding his lineage, his father, Ḥusayn, who was of Kurdish origin, came as a child from the town of Rāznān, which was near Erbil in northern Iraq, and settled in Cairo. When Irāqī was three years old, his father passed away. ==Early life==

Birth He was born to an Iraqi father and an Egyptian mother on 21 Jumādā al-Awwal 725 AH, corresponding to 5 May 1325 CE in Cairo. When al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Irāqī was born, his father took him to Shaykh Taqi al-Dīn al-Qanāwī for supplication, taḥnīk (placing a sweet substance in the infant's mouth), and seeking blessing. When ʿAbd al-Raḥīm was three years old, his father passed away. As a result, he came under the guardianship of his father's close companion, Shaykh Taqi al-Dīn al-Qanāwī (d. 744/1343), and was raised under his care and guidance. The name ʿAbd al-Raḥīm was also given to him by this shaykh, in honour of his own teacher and grandfather, Shaykh ʿAbd al-Raḥīm al-Qanāwī (d. 692/1292). "You are sharp-minded and of sound intellect — devote your ambition and effort to the science of ḥadīth." After traveling through the main centers of knowledge in Egypt, especially Cairo and Alexandria receiving lessons and transmissions from the muḥaddithin there, he travelled to the east and southeast, to places such as Damascus, Aleppo, Hama, Homs, Nablus, Gaza, Jerusalem, Mecca, and Medina; and to the west, including Tripoli and Baalbek. He undertook numerous riḥlas (scholarly journeys) to centers where he heard that notable scholars of ḥadīth resided, in order to benefit from them. Teachers He studied among the greatest scholars of his time: • Taqi al-Dīn al-Subkī • Salāh al-Dīn al-ʿAlāʾī • Izz al-Dīn Ibn Jamāʿah • Ibn Kathir • The Shāfiʿī jurist al-Isnawī • Ibn ʿAbd al-Hādī ==Scholarly life==

Career Al-Ḥāfiẓ al-Irāqī's engagement with knowledge extended far beyond study and authorship; he was deeply involved in teaching, issuing legal opinions, and reviving scholarly traditions. He held teaching posts and delivered lectures in numerous madrasas, which served as the principal centers of higher learning in his time. Among the main institutions where he taught were Dār al-Ḥadīth al-Kāmiliyya and al-Madrasa al-Zāhiriyya al-Qadīma in Cairo, as well as al-Madrasa al-Qarasnikriyya. He also taught in the Fāḍiliyya Madrasa, where he lectured on jurisprudence, and he established public teaching circles in Jāmiʿ Ibn Ṭūlūn and Jāmiʿ al-Fāḍiliyya. His teaching activities were not limited to Egypt. In Syria, Mecca, and Medina he taught ḥadīth, trained students, and issued legal opinions (fatwās). During his residence in the Ḥaramayn al-Sharīfayn, he taught in various mosques and madrasas. Beginning on 12 Jumādā al-Awwal 788 (1386), he served for three years and five months in Medina al-Munawwara as qāḍī, as well as imām and khaṭīb in the Prophet's Mosque. Later, he was also appointed judge in Mecca. Al-Irāqī devoted himself completely to ḥadīth—its study, teaching, and transmission. He revived the tradition of public dictation sessions (imlāʾ), which had largely fallen out of practice since the era of Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ al-Shahrazūrī. He began these sessions in Medina in 795 (1393) and continued them in Cairo until six months before his death, delivering a total of 416 sessions over eleven years. According to Ibn Ḥajar, the majority of the ḥadīth he dictated in these assemblies he recited from memory. • Nur al-Din al-Haythami • Wali al-Din al-'Iraqi • Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani • Badr al-Din al-Ayni • Ibn Rajab • Ibn al-Jazari • Taqi al-Din al-Fasi • Al-Damiri • Al-Qalqashandi • Ibn al-'Ajmi • Shihab al-Din al-Busiri Ibn Kathīr, though twenty-four years his senior, read some works under him and benefited from him in ḥadīth verification. Al-Irāqī most outstanding students, however, were: Nūr al-Dīn al-Haythamī, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, and his son, Abū Zur'a, known as Ibn al-Irāqī. Al-Haythamī was his student, son-in-law, and closest companion. Ibn Ḥajar studied under al-Irāqī for ten years and was Ibn Hajar's most important teacher in hadith studies. His son Abū Zurʿa benefited continually from him as well. When al-Irāqī was asked near the end of his life who remained after him who could be counted among the ḥuffāẓ (leading masters of ḥadīth), he named first Ibn Ḥajar, then his son Ibn al-Irāqī, and third Nūr al-Dīn al-Haythamī, an indication of the special attention he gave to these three students who would succeed him and become the top three ḥuffāẓ of their era. ==Death==

He died on the night of Wednesday, the 8th of Sha'bān, 806 AH, in Cairo. He was buried in their family cemetery outside Bāb al-Barqiyyah, and his funeral was widely attended. The prayer over him was led by Shihāb al-Dīn al-Dhahabī. He died at the age of eighty-one years and three months. Nūr al-Dīn al-Haythamī related that Shaykh Zayn al-Dīn al-‘Irāqī saw in a dream the Prophet Jesus, and the angels praying over him — a vision taken as a sign of his virtue and acceptance with Allah. Following his death, one of his most distinguished students, Ibn Ḥajar al-ʿAsqalānī, composed a long elegiac poem (marthiya) mourning him. ==Legacy==

Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī was remembered by his contemporaries as one of the three intellectual marvels of his age: Zayn al-Dīn al-ʿIrāqī as the foremost authority in ḥadīth; Sirāj al-Dīn al-Bulqīnī as the foremst Shāfiʿī jurist; and Ibn al-Mulaqqin as the most prolific author. Ḥāfiẓ al-ʿIrāqī was celebrated as an exceptionally versatile scholar of ḥadīth, mastering every major discipline within its sciences, including ʿilm al-rijāl (the study of narrators’ biographies), taḥrīj (tracing ḥadīth sources), ʿilm al-dirāyah (understanding the meaning of ḥadīth), ʿilm al-riwāyah (methods of transmission), jarḥ wa taʿdīl (criticism and accreditation of narrators), ghurab al-ḥadīth (rare ḥadīth), and ʿilal al-ḥadīth (hidden defects in ḥadīth). His stature was such that his own teachers, among them: Taqī al-Dīn al-Subkī, al-ʿAlāʾī, Ibn Kathīr, Ibn Jamāʿah, and al-Isnawī all spoke highly of him and adopted his judgments, and deferred to his insight. They described him as a person of wisdom and insight, which demonstrates the authority and depth he possessed in knowledge. By the time of his death, al-ʿIrāqī had become a reference point for the entire tradition of ḥadīth studies. His works, students, and methodological legacy ensured that the discipline would continue with renewed strength for generations after him. ==Reception==

Al-al-Irāqī was widely regarded by his contemporaries: ʿIzz al-Dīn ibn Jamā'ah said: “Everyone in the land of Egypt who claims expertise in ḥadīth is beneath him, for he is the sole true claimant.” Ibn Nāṣir al-Dīn said: “He was a Shaykh, Imam, Allāmah, and unique. He was the ḥāfiẓ of his age, the shaykh of muḥaddithin, the mark of the critics, and the foremost of the scholars of ḥadīth classification.” Ibn Fahd: “He was a unique Imam, Allāmah, experienced scholar (ḥibr), authority (ḥujjah), critic (naqīḍ), support of the people, the ḥāfiẓ of Islam, the singular of his age, and the one unmatched of his time. He surpassed all scholars of his era in memorization and mastery, and the Imams of his time testified to his unrivaled expertise in his discipline.” ==Works==

Having devoted his life to the path of knowledge, al-Irāqī did not limit himself to reading, learning, and teaching; he also synthesized what he had learned with his own knowledge and composed it in writing. He produced numerous works both in his field of expertise, ḥadīth, and in other Islamic disciplines. Some of these works have survived to the present day, while others have not. The works attributed to al-Irāqī include: ===Hadith=== • Iḥbār al-Aḥyāʾ bi-Aḥbār al-Iḥyāʾ • Al-Kashf al-Mubīn ʿan Taḥrīj al-Iḥyāʾ ʿUlūm al-Dīn • Al-Mughnī ʿan Ḥamli'l-Asfār fī'l-Asfār fī Taḥrīj Mā fī'l-Iḥyāʾ min al-Aḥbār • Al-Takyīd wa'l-ʾĪẓāḥ limā Utlika wa Ughliqa min Muqaddimat Ibn al-Ṣalāḥ • Alfiyya of al-Iraqi • Takrīb al-Asānīd wa Tartīb al-Masānīd • Zayl ʿalā Mīzān al-Iʿtidāl • Taḥrīj Aḥādīth al-Minhāj li’l-Bayzāwī • Naẓm al-Minhāj al-Wuṣūl ilā ʿIlm al-Usūl (al-Najm al-Wahhāj fī Naẓm al-Minhāj) • Takmīlat Sharḥ al-Tirmidhī • Kitāb al-Arbaʿīn al-ʿUshāriyyah • Al-Tusāʿiyyāt • Al-Bāʿiṣ ʿalā al-Ḥalās min Ḥawādis al-Quṣṣāṣ • Al-Durar al-Saniyya fī (Naẓm) • Al-Siyr al-Zakiyya (fī Naẓm al-Sīrah al-Nabawiyya) • Al-Kurab fī Maḥabbati’l-ʿArab • Kurrah al-ʿAyn bi'l-Masarrat bi-Wafāʾ al-Dīn • Al-Risālah • Nukāt al-Fatāwā ʿalā al-Muḥtaṣarāt • Al-Mustahraç ʿalā al-Mustadrak li'l-Hākim • Majālis-i Sabʿah • Muḥtaṣar fī'l-Aḥādīth al-Mutaʿalliqah bi'l-Aḥkām • Al-ʿAdad al-Muʿtabar fī'l-Awjuh allatī Bayna al-Ṣuwar • Istihbāb al-Wudūʾ • Al-Istiʿāzah bi'l-Wāḥid min Iqāmat Ḥummaʿateyn bi-Makān Wāḥid • Tamyīz al-Ashāb • Zayl al-Tārīkh al-Islām • Al-Kalām ʿalā al-Aḥādīth allātī Tukallimuhu Fīhā bi'l-Waḍʿ wa Hiya fī Musnad al-Imām Aḥmad • Fatwā fī Anna Mā Uʿtida Yawma ʿĀshūrāʾ min Akli al-Dajjāj wa’l-Ḥubūb al-Mubāḥ • Amālī fīmā Yataʿallaqu bi'l-Istiskāʾ Other • Ajwibat Ibn al-ʿArabī • Iḥyāʾ Qalbi'l-Mayyit bi Dhukhūl al-Bayt • Al-Istiʿāzah bi'l-Wāḥid min Iqāmat Ḥummaʿateyn fī Makān Wāḥid • Asmāʾ Allāh al-Ḥusnā • Alfiyya fī Gharīb al-Qurʾān • Tatimmāt al-Muhimmāt • Tārīkh Taḥrīm al-Ribā • Tarjamat al-Isnevī • Tafdīl Zamzam • Faḍl Gharī Hirāʾ • Kurrah al-ʿAyn bi Wafāʾ al-Dīn • Masʾalat al-Shurb Kāʾiman • Al-Kalām ʿalā Masʾalat al-Sujūd li-Tark al-Ṣalāt ==See also==