Ali ibn Abu Bakr al-Haythami

Who was Ali ibn Abu Bakr al-Haythami?

Nur al-Din `Ali ibn Abi Bakr ibn Sulayman, Abu al-Hasan al-Haythami was a Sunni Shafi`i Islamic scholar from Cairo, whose father had a shop on a desert road. He was born in the month of Rajab in 735 H. corresponding to 1335 CE. He learned the Qur'an and memorized it, and when he was a teenager, he became a disciple of a highly renowned scholar of Hadith, Abd Al-Raheem ibn Al-Hussain ibn Abd Al-Rahman, who was better known as Zain Al-Deen Al-Iraqi.

Al-Haythami became a committed associate of Al-Iraqi, staying with him all the time, traveling with him when he traveled, and offering the pilgrimage in his company. He attended with him every circle he attended in Cairo, other cities in Egypt, Makkah, Madinah, Jerusalem, Damascus, Baalbak, Aleppo and other places. The only teacher under whom Al-Haythami read, without being attended by Al-Iraqi, was Ibn Abd Al-Hadi, from whom he heard the Sahih collection of Imam Muslim. On the other hand, Al-Iraqi heard from only four teachers without Al-Haythami taking part.

Al-Iraqi, who was only ten years older than Al-Haythami, was a highly distinguished scholar of Hadith. Al-Haythami was also to distinguish himself as a scholar of Hadith, but despite his broad scholarly achievement, he preferred to remain in the shadow of his teacher and friend, Al-Iraqi. Indeed, Al-Iraqi relied on Al-Haythami in conducting much of his affairs, and gave him his daughter in marriage. He trained him in a particular area of Hadith scholarship and Al-Haythami was to achieve distinction in this field and to produce highly valuable works in it. This is the area of Zawa’id which we will presently discuss.