al-Kashmiri

Muhammad Anwar Shah ibn Mu'azzam Shah al-Kashmiri (1292-1352 AH / 1875-1933 CE) was one of the most brilliant Islamic scholars of the 20th century Indian subcontinent. Born in Kashmir, he studied at Darul Uloom Deoband and eventually became its most celebrated teacher, serving as Shaykh al-Hadith there.

Al-Kashmiri possessed a photographic memory and an encyclopedic command of hadith literature rare even among the greatest scholars. He is said to have memorized over 300,000 hadiths with their chains, making him one of the most memorially gifted hadith scholars of modern times. He also had deep expertise in Hanafi jurisprudence and the rational sciences.

His major contribution to hadith literature is al-Arf ash-Shadhi ala Jami' at-Tirmidhi, an extensive commentary on Sunan at-Tirmidhi that demonstrates his extraordinary mastery of hadith sciences, narrator criticism, and comparative jurisprudence. He also authored Fayd al-Bari ala Sahih al-Bukhari, a commentary on Sahih al-Bukhari based on his lecture notes compiled by his students. These works established him as one of the foremost Hanafi hadith commentators of the modern era.

He was known for his ability to cite hadith texts and sources from memory without reference to books, astonishing even senior scholars with his recall. He left Deoband late in life due to deteriorating health and passed away in Anwarshar near Gujrat, Punjab (Pakistan) in 1352 AH. He is revered in the Deobandi tradition as one of its greatest scholars.