Abdurrahman al-Muallimi

Abdurrahman ibn Yahya al-Mu'allimi al-Yamani (1896-1966 CE / 1313-1386 AH) was a Yemeni hadith scholar and researcher who spent the most productive years of his career at the Umm al-Qura Library (now the Makkah al-Mukarramah Library) in Mecca. Born in the Utmah region of Yemen, he was largely self-taught, developing extraordinary expertise in hadith sciences, narrator criticism, and manuscript research.

Al-Mu'allimi's most celebrated work is at-Tankil bima fi Ta'nib al-Kawthari min al-Abatil, a detailed scholarly response to al-Kawthari's Ta'nib al-Khatib, defending the reliability of hadith narrators that al-Kawthari had criticized. This work demonstrated his mastery of the science of narrator evaluation (ilm ar-rijal) and his commitment to objective, evidence-based hadith criticism. He also authored al-Anwar al-Kashifah, defending the Sunnah and hadith literature against Orientalist critiques, and produced critical editions of important classical works including al-Jarh wat-Ta'dil by Ibn Abi Hatim and al-Fawa'id al-Majmu'ah by ash-Shawkani.

Al-Mu'allimi is regarded as one of the most precise and skilled hadith critics of the modern era. His work at the Umm al-Qura Library gave him access to rare manuscripts, and his editorial and critical contributions helped preserve and clarify important classical works. Despite working in relative obscurity for much of his life, his scholarly reputation has grown posthumously, and he is now recognized as one of the great hadith scholars of the 20th century. He passed away in Mecca.