Diya' ad-Din al-Maqdisi

Diya' ad-Din Abu Abdullah Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahid ibn Ahmad al-Maqdisi (569-643 AH / 1173-1245 CE) was a Hanbali hadith scholar from the renowned Maqdisi family of Damascus. He was a leading hadith master of the 7th century AH and founded the Dar al-Hadith ad-Diya'iyyah on Jabal Qasiyun in Damascus, an institution that became an important center of hadith learning.

Diya' al-Maqdisi studied under the major hadith scholars of Syria, Iraq, the Hijaz, and other regions, collecting narrations and receiving ijazahs from the leading masters of his era. He traveled extensively in pursuit of hadith, a hallmark of the muhaddithin tradition.

His most important work is al-Ahadith al-Mukhtarah (The Selected Hadiths), also known as al-Mukhtarah, a collection of hadiths he authenticated as sound (sahih) or good (hasan) — hadiths not found in the Sahihayn (Bukhari and Muslim) but which he considered authentic. This work is a major addition to the authenticated hadith literature and is cited by later hadith scholars as a source of acceptable narrations.

He also authored Fadail al-A'mal and numerous other hadith compilations and works on the biography of narrators. His Dar al-Hadith trained many students in the sciences of hadith transmission and criticism.

Diya' al-Maqdisi passed away in Damascus in 643 AH. His al-Mukhtarah is his most significant scholarly legacy, representing an important contribution to the authenticated hadith literature and the Athari-Hanbali scholarly tradition in Damascus.