20191463
The best of what Muslims study is the biography of the Prophet, peace be upon him. It is the best instructive biography that help people to have good morals and intellectual beliefs and therefore many writers wrote about this blessed biography over ages.
One of the important writings that were well received among scientists, and deliberated, and adopted is the book Uyūn al-athar fī funūn al-maghāzī wa-al-shamā’il wa-al-siyar of Sayyid al-Yamari, who died in 734 AH.
Author’s Biography
Ibn Sayyid al-Nas: Mohammad bin Mohammad bin Mohammad bin Ahmed Al Ya’mari Al Rubei, the Great Scholar, Historian, Writer and Poet, born in 671 H. He grew up in a house of science and leadership. His grandfather was a man of teaching and imam and his father was a sheikh of Prophetic traditions (Hedith) in Al Kamelia School in Egypt. Our biographer was taught by several sheikhs of the time such as Sharaf Uddin Al Demiatti, Qutb Uddin Al Qastalani, Taqiuddin Eddin Ibn Daqiq Ul-Eid and on the teachings of his sheikhs, he took over teaching in several places inside and outside Egypt. His students include Shams Uddin El Dhahabi, Zain Uddin Al Iraqi and Al Safadi. His writings include Al Nafh Al Shazi Sharh El Termezi, Al Maqamat Al Aliah fil Karamat Al Galiyah and Bushra Al Labeeb fi Zekra Al Habib (PBUH). He died in 734 H.
“He is a great scholar of Egypt, a man of profound experience in rhetoric and an incomparable poet and prose-writer”, Al Isnawi said about him. Al Hafez Ibn Hajar said in tribute to him: “He is a unique person in understanding, wide knowledge, wit and good writing”.
Written copy of the book:
People competed in the acquisition of the book Uyūn al-athar, and therefore its written copies increased in the manuscripts’ storage cabinets. There is no library has a copy of this interesting book.
Thankfully, the Islamic Manuscripts House at Al-Qasimia university has a precious copy of this book:
Number of papers: 201 papers, number of lines: 31 lines, size: 28.5 x 21.5.
Copied by Mohammed, Date of copying: Tuesday, 2 Jumada I. the rest of copying’s data was damaged and torn.
Its binding cover is brown, with a medallion with a plant decoration and a cut bookmark.
The titles of the manuscript were written in red ink and some words were underlined using red ink.
Their footnotes contain notes, corrections and clarifying comments.
A major note is in (32/a): “The owner Sheikh Suliman Al Hanafi reported what he heard from the beginning to this point. Written by Ibrahim Al Lakani.”
There is another right, dated 1264 H.
It’s noteworthy that some of the papers were torn from the original copy and completed in different handwriting. They are found in (1 / a to 13 / b) (130 / a to 163 / b)
Reasons for authorship
The late author mentioned all causes of authoring this book in the introduction saying: “When I reviewed the gatherings of the people in the past and the present concerning the lift history, morals and days of the Prophet (PBUH), I noticed boring redundancy or deficient conciseness. It is either a redundancy of names, origins, poetry and arts, or approaching any and every approach in gathering accounts or a one-approach conciseness, leaving behind many of its benefits.
The division of the book
Ibn Sayyid al-Nas divided his book into an introduction and two main sections:
He mentioned in the introduction his methodology and some issues related to Hadith.
The first section included: the genealogy of the Prophet peace be upon him, his birth, his breastfeeding phase, his origin, his grandfather Abdulmutallab and his uncle Abu Talib’s sponsorship, his travel to Syria, his marriage to Khadiga and the principal of Baath and prophecy
This section was followed by two appendices: the first: summarized all the important incidents mentioned in the first section; and the second: the miracles of the Prophet peace be upon him.
With regard to the second part, he mentioned his children, peace be upon him, his uncles, his aunts, his wives, his slaves, his horses, and his arm.
Book Features
The book « Uyūn al-athar» is characterized by the sweetness of the word, the sequence of incidents according to their history, and the interdependence and coordination between the chapters, with the citing of poems commensurate with the incidents he mentioned shortly, without fillers and redundancy, while avoiding repetition in the mention of attributes and genealogy. He mentioned the genealogy of the man when first time it appeared in the text. In addition to, the explanation of the strange words contained in each incident, with citing the verses and hadith related to each historical event.
In all this effort, he not only conveyed his narration, but he sums up, corrects, comments and explains, quitting the rhymed prose of his era and leaving the words reflect what they really mean.
His sources
The sources that the author relied upon in this useful book were varied. A number of them are mentioned in his book at the end of the book. They can be divided into three types:
The first type: works on the Prophet’s Life History (Sirah) such as Ibn Ishaq’s Sirah, Mussa Ibn Oqbah’s Al Maghazi, Ibn Saad‘s Al Tabaqat and Al Sahli‘s Al Rawdh Al Anf.
The second type: the works on Prophetic Traditions (Hedith) such as Al Bukhari wa Muslim, Abi Dawood and Al Termezi and the narrations of Abi Yaala Al Moseli, Al Dolabi, Al Tabarani, etc.
The third type: the works on the general history, origins and the like. The books of this kind are various in the book contents and their names were not mentioned in the book end. They include Al Bilazri’s Futuh Al Boldan, Tareekh Al Tabari and Al Rashati’s Iqtibas Al Anwar wa Eltimas Al Azhar fi Ansab Al Sahabah wa Rowat Al Athar.
See for biography: Al Wafi Belwafiyat (1/196), Tazkerat Al Hefez (4/333), Al Isnawi’s Tabaqat Al Shafiyah (2/510) and Al Dorar Al Kamenah (331/4).
