Page 208 - History of The Quranic Text | Kalamullah.Com

188 THE HISTORY OF THE QUR'ANIC TEXT

Ibn Maja
I
Al-Qartan
I
Abu Talha
I
Al-Muqawwimi
I
AbuZur'a
I
Ibn Qudama

r I I --------,
Abu Isbaq Al-Farra Adh-Dhahabt Shamsuddin
I
At-Tujaibt Al-Bhagdadl Al-Harranl Al-Mizzr Ibanl
I
Ibn Hajar
Figure 12.8: Khan's diagramfor the transmission ofIbnMaJa.
This one pertaining to Ibn Oy,dama onlY.

Taken together, these two charts insinuate that lessthan a dozen students
transmitted Sunan Ibn111.aja through the renowned Ibn Qudama, Such a
miserly perception can be dispelled, I believe,if we examine the manuscript
of at-Taimuria, No. 522 at the Egyptian Public Library, Cairo.

B. READING CERTIFICATES IN SlINAN IBN MAJA
Ibn Qudama al-Maqdisi (d. 620 A.H.), author of one of the most celebrated
encyclopaedic books on Islamicjurisprudence, al-Mughnz(printed in fourteen
volumes), served as the scribe of this valuable manuscript. Dividing it into
seventeen parts, he placed blank sheets after each part to provide sufficient
space for reading certificates.t? which he copied with abridgement at each
part's conclusion while noting that the full certificate was written by the
hand of another famous scholar,Ibn Tariq (d. 592 A.H.). The certificatesfor
the sixth part, for example, show that this portion was read by 'Abdullah
bin Ahmad bin Ahmad bin Ahmad bin al-Khashshab, to Sheikh Abo Zur'a
Tahir bin Muhammad bin Tahir al-Maqdisi. Those in attendance included

49 Generally all such divisions were left to the scribe's discretion: he could drop the
divisions altogether, or devise his own scheme.