The foundation generation: Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad and his brother

The elder brother, Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad, pursued advanced studies under the mentorship of several distinguished members of the Ṭabarī family, one of the most powerful and influential scholarly dynasties in Mecca.Footnote ¹⁷ This educational relationship proved crucial for Jamāl al-Dīn’s subsequent career trajectory and social positioning. He specialised in jurisprudence (fiqh), studying with a Ṭabarī family member who held the prestigious position of chief judge (qādī al-quḍāt) of Mecca. Jamāl al-Dīn’s competence and his patron’s confidence in his abilities led to his appointment as deputy judge, a position he retained even when his original mentor’s son succeeded his father following the latter’s death. The position of deputy judge carried substantial authority and provided access to Mecca’s administrative and social elite. Deputy judges handled much of the routine judicial business, presided over cases in the chief judge’s absence, and participated in the networks of patronage and alliance that structured Meccan society. The position also generated income through fees and potentially through opportunities for profitable connections with litigants and other officials. However, judicial service alone rarely produced substantial wealth in the medieval Islamic world, and Jamāl al-Dīn’s true financial success derived from a different source.

It was through commerce that Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad amassed a considerable fortune, enabling him to acquire numerous properties.Footnote ¹⁸ His younger brother, al-Ḥasan, received an education comparable to his brother’s, acquiring several licences of transmission (ijāzāt) from scholars in various locations. However, al-Ḥasan’s primary engagement was in commercial activities conducted on his brother’s behalf, particularly to Yemen.Footnote ¹⁹

The division of labour between the brothers—with Jamāl al-Dīn managing local affairs, maintaining judicial and social positions in Mecca, and overseeing properties, while al-Ḥasan handled long-distance trade and supply networks—represents a rational allocation of responsibilities that maximised the family’s commercial efficiency while protecting Jamāl al-Dīn’s status and reputation in Mecca. Long-distance merchants often faced social ambivalence, as travel necessarily distanced them from local communities and networks, whereas Jamāl al-Dīn’s continuous presence in Mecca enabled sustained cultivation of relationships with religious, administrative, and commercial elites.

Both brothers engaged in hadith studies as part of a general religious education expected of respectable urban Muslims, but they did not capitalise on this knowledge to build specialised scholarly reputations. Instead, they concentrated their energies on securing administrative positions—such as Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad’s deputy judgeship—and accumulating capital through commerce. Hadith learning served primarily as cultural capital that enhanced social standing and facilitated professional advancement rather than as a foundation for specialised scholarly careers. This pattern was common among urban notables who valued religious learning as a marker of respectability while pursuing wealth and administrative influence as primary goals.

Establishing the dynasty: from commerce to scholarship

Significantly, no descendants of al-Ḥasan have been identified in the sources, suggesting either that he died without producing surviving male offspring or that any children he may have had did not achieve sufficient prominence to warrant mention in biographical literature. The family’s subsequent flourishing and ultimate transformation into a scholarly dynasty is therefore attributed entirely to the lineage of the elder brother, Jamāl al-Dīn Muḥammad. He had three sons and one daughter. The third son, Abū al-Khayr Muḥammad (d. 773/1372; see Chart 1, no. 4), played a pivotal role in ensuring the continuity and expansion of the family line.Footnote ²⁰ He begat three sons and one daughter, two of whom—Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 811/1408; see Chart 1, no. 7)Footnote ²¹ and Wajīh al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 793/1391; see Chart 1, no. 8)Footnote ²²—had numerous offspring. However, the family’s emergence as a distinguished scholarly dynasty is primarily attributed to the first of these brothers, Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad. His son Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad (d. 871/1466) represents a watershed figure in family history and is widely regarded as the true founder of the scholarly dynasty that would define the Banū Fahd for subsequent generations.Footnote ²³

From Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad in the early ninth/fifteenth century until the early eleventh/seventeenth century, the Banū Fahd maintained their reputation as leading authorities in hadith scholarship across several generations. One of the last known representatives, ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 995/1587; see Chart 1, no. 40), was still celebrated by contemporaries as one of the most illustrious traditionists of his era.Footnote ²⁴ Whether the line died out entirely, whether descendants survived but failed to achieve scholarly distinction, or whether later family members simply fell below the threshold of visibility in the sources remains unclear.Footnote ²⁵ Over approximately four centuries (from the early eighth/fourteenth through the eleventh/seventeenth centuries), no fewer than 95 members (61 male and 34 female) of the Banū Fahd are documented in biographical sources. This substantial documentation—unusual for all but the most prominent families—reflects both the family’s genuine prominence and the relatively extensive source base for Meccan history during the Mamluk and early Ottoman periods. Significantly, 41 of these individuals (roughly 41 per cent of documented family members) are known to have received education in hadith sciences, with many acquiring licences of transmission (ijāzāt) that certified their competence as transmitters and authorised them to teach specific texts or traditions.

From commerce to hadith scholarship: the decisive transition

The decisive shift towards hadith specialisation began in the second half of the eighth/fourteenth century, when certain family members started systematically cultivating expertise in hadith transmission.Footnote ³⁹ These pioneering members actively acquired licences of transmission (ijāzāt) from traditionists active in Mecca and in other regions, particularly Egypt. The first representatives to pursue this path were Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad (see Chart 1, no. 7) and, significantly, his elder sister Sitt Quraysh Fāṭimah (d. 827/1424; see Chart 1, no. 6).Footnote ⁴⁰ Sitt Quraysh Fāṭimah’s prominence in the family’s early hadith specialisation deserves particular emphasis, as it illustrates both the opportunities available to women in medieval Islamic scholarly culture and the strategic importance of female education for family advancement.Footnote ⁴¹ She received licences of transmission at an early age from multiple authorities and actively engaged in hadith transmission (ḥaddathat), teaching students who sought access to the traditions she was authorised to transmit. Her expertise proved crucial for her younger brother Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad, who benefited directly from her knowledge, studying hadith under her direction (samiʿa minhā).Footnote ⁴² This sibling relationship—with the sister serving as teacher to her brother—illustrates the flexible, pragmatic character of hadith education, where competence and authorisation mattered more than gender hierarchies in determining who could teach whom.

Najm al-Dīn Muḥammad subsequently expanded his studies with other masters beyond his sister, undertaking multiple journeys to Cairo to learn from prominent Egyptian traditionists and acquire additional licences of transmission.Footnote ⁴³ He then established himself as an active hadith transmitter in Mecca, and crucially, one of the students was his own son Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad.Footnote ⁴⁴ This pattern—of studying first with a family member who provided foundational training, then supplementing that education with external masters, and finally transmitting to the next generation—would become characteristic of the Banū Fahd’s approach to hadith education.

Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad: architect of the scholarly dynasty

Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad represents the pivotal figure who consciously and systematically strove to become a recognised specialist in the science of tradition and to establish the institutional foundations—particularly an extensive scholarly network—that would enable his descendants to maintain that specialisation. His approach combined intensive personal study, strategic exploitation of Mecca’s unique advantages as a pilgrimage centre, and deliberate cultivation of his children’s scholarly credentials from their earliest years.

Recognising Mecca’s strategic position, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad seized every opportunity to attend teaching sessions conducted by local masters and visiting luminaries during the pilgrimage season.Footnote ⁴⁵ However, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad did not rely solely on Mecca’s advantages. He undertook two extended journeys to Yemen, studying with leading Yemeni authorities and securing multiple licences of transmission.Footnote ⁴⁶ Most significantly for his reputation, he made systematic efforts to collect traditions from diverse authorities, becoming exceptionally knowledgeable in both elevated (ʿālin) and ‘descending’ (nāzil) chains of transmission (isnād).Footnote ⁴⁷ This distinction requires explanation, as it reveals a fundamental dynamic in medieval Islamic hadith scholarship. In the science of tradition, a scholar’s value as a transmitter was assessed partly according to the number of intermediate transmitters separating him from the original source—ideally the Prophet Muḥammad himself, but more practically, from early authoritative transmitters like the Companions or their immediate successors. An ‘elevated chain’ (isnād ʿālin) contained fewer intermediate transmitters, bringing the contemporary scholar closer to the original source. Elevated chains were prized for multiple reasons: they reduced opportunities for textual corruption or error across generations of transmission, they suggested the transmitter had access to rare or prestigious sources, and they conferred higher status on the scholar who possessed them. Conversely, a ‘descending chain’ (isnād nāzil) contained more intermediate links, placing the contemporary transmitter further from the original source.Footnote ⁴⁸ The paradox of medieval hadith scholarship was that, as time passed and generations accumulated, naturally occurring chains inevitably descended—became longer—as new generations were born. Scholars therefore competed to acquire the shortest possible chains by seeking out the oldest living transmitters (often elderly scholars or women who had received ijāzāt as children and lived to advanced ages). Expertise in both elevated and descending chains meant comprehensive knowledge of transmission routes: the scholar could provide the most prestigious short chains when available but also possessed the breadth of knowledge to supply alternative chains when necessary.

Through his intensive study, strategic positioning, and systematic collection of diverse traditions, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad established a formidable reputation. He became renowned throughout the Islamic world for possessing elevated chains, attracting visitors from distant regions.Footnote ⁴⁹

Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s concern for his children’s education and their systematic preparation for scholarly careersFootnote ⁵⁰ receives particular emphasis in biographical sources, which document his pedagogical strategies through specific recurring expressions. These formulaic phrases—aḥḍarahu (he brought him in the presence of X), asmaʿahu (he brought him to the teaching sessions of X), and istajāza lahu (he sought licences of transmission for him)—appear prominently in biographical notices for each of his children (see Chart 1, nos. 16–21).Footnote ⁵¹ These expressions reveal a deliberate, systematic approach to education that began in early childhood.Footnote ⁵² Rather than waiting until children reached adolescence to begin formal education, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad brought even young children into the presence of visiting scholars, exposing them to teaching sessions and securing licences that would later certify their competence as transmitters. The practice of obtaining ijāzāt for children—sometimes infants—was common in medieval Islamic scholarly culture, particularly for hadith. These early licences served multiple functions: they provided the shortest possible chains for the next generation (since the child received the ijāzah at a young age and might live decades, eventually becoming an elderly transmitter with remarkably elevated chains), they demonstrated the family’s commitment to scholarship, and they created social bonds between the authorising scholar and the child’s family.Footnote ⁵³ The expression bakkara bi-hi abūhu (his father introduced him [to learning] at a very early age), used specifically for Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar (see Chart 1, no. 18), Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s son who would succeed him as the family’s leading hadith authority, indicates particularly intensive early education. This precocious introduction enabled Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar to accumulate extensive knowledge and numerous authorisations by the time he reached adulthood, positioning him to become—like his father—a specialist in both elevated and descending chains of transmission. The parallel between father and son in this specific expertise was not coincidental but resulted from deliberate pedagogical planning and early sustained exposure to hadith studies.

Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s pedagogical efforts extended beyond his immediate offspring to encompass siblings and their children, creating a broader network of educated family members who could collectively enhance the family’s reputation. He assumed responsibility for educating his younger brother, Walī al-Dīn ʿAṭīyah (d. 874/1470; see Chart 1, no. 11),Footnote ⁵⁴ bringing him to lessons with several local masters and arranging for his instruction with scholars from diverse regions.Footnote ⁵⁵

This pattern of comprehensive family education—encompassing children, siblings, nieces, and nephews—created redundancy and resilience in the transmission of family cultural capital. If a particular family member died young, failed to produce offspring, or proved less talented than hoped, other educated family members could maintain the family’s scholarly presence and reputation. This diversified investment strategy reduced the risks inherent in dynastic reproduction.

Intergenerational transmission of educational strategies

The systematic education of children and relatives became an established family pattern, transmitted across generations as a crucial component of dynastic strategy. When Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar emerged as the leading figure of the scholarly dynasty, he consciously adopted and refined his father’s pedagogical approach, applying it to his own children and his brothers’ offspring. The biographical sources employ the same formulaic expressions used for Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad when describing Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s educational efforts, suggesting conscious replication of proven methods. Additionally, the recurring phrase iʿtaná bi-hi (he devoted attention to him) appears frequently when discussing Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s education of his sons (see Chart 1, nos. 32 and 33).Footnote ⁵⁶ This expression conveys sustained, careful attention rather than merely arranging occasional educational opportunities—suggesting intensive, ongoing involvement in children’s intellectual development. He also extended his pedagogical care to his nephews (see Chart 1, nos. 29 and 30), enabling them to benefit from his extensive network and bringing them to the teaching sessions with the masters he knew.Footnote ⁵⁷ This investment in nephews’ education strengthened horizontal family bonds (between brothers and their descendants) while ensuring that multiple family branches possessed the credentials to maintain the family’s scholarly reputation.

The pattern persisted into the third generation of specialised hadith scholars. Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s son, ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 922/1516; see Chart 1, no. 33),Footnote ⁵⁸ reproduced the same pedagogical strategies with his own son Muḥibb al-Dīn Jār Allāh (d. 954/1447; see Chart 1, no. 37), ensuring continuity into the early tenth/sixteenth century.Footnote ⁵⁹ The successful transmission of pedagogical strategies across generations depended on several factors: sons observed their fathers’ methods firsthand during their own education, experiencing directly how systematic early introduction to scholars, careful cultivation of relationships, and strategic acquisition of licences produced scholarly competence and reputation. This experiential learning provided tacit knowledge about how to educate the next generation that could not be fully captured in written instructions. Additionally, the visible success of these strategies—the sons’ own achievements as scholars—validated the methods and motivated their replication.

The Banū Fahd’s success in building and maintaining their scholarly dynasty rested fundamentally on their ability to exploit Mecca’s unique position as an annual gathering place for scholars from throughout the Islamic world. As noted earlier, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad recognised and systematically capitalised on the opportunities created by the pilgrimage season, when hundreds of scholars converged on the holy city. This strategy required not merely passive presence but active cultivation of relationships, strategic deployment of family members to maximise contact with visitors, and careful documentation of these encounters through certificates of audition (samāʿāt) that would authenticate future transmission.

The extended relationship between the Banū Fahd family and the Egyptian historian al-Maqrīzī (d. 845/1442) exemplifies how these strategies operated in practice and reveals the sophisticated orchestration of family resources to maximise scholarly benefit from a visiting luminary’s presence.Footnote ⁶⁰

When al-Maqrīzī travelled to Mecca in spring 834/1431, he planned to extend his stay until autumn with the specific aim of transmitting the first four volumes of his biography of the Prophet, which he had completed. This was not merely a pilgrimage but a deliberate scholarly mission: al-Maqrīzī sought to disseminate his work in Mecca, creating certified transmission routes through Meccan scholars who could subsequently teach the text to others throughout the Islamic world. A series of formal reading sessions (majālis al-samāʿ) was organised, held in the most prestigious possible location—in front of the Kaʿbah itself—and attended by a considerable congregation of scholars, students, and interested observers. These sessions followed established protocols for hadith and scholarly text transmission: al-Maqrīzī, as the author and authority, listened to the reading of his own text, verifying its accuracy and authorising the readers and auditors to transmit it in the future. Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad served as the primary reader (qāriʾ), a position of honour that demonstrated his standing in Mecca scholarly circles and his relationship with al-Maqrīzī. At the conclusion of some sessions, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad added marginal notes to al-Maqrīzī’s holograph manuscript, recording precisely where they had stopped in the text and identifying the session number. Significantly, one preserved marginal note indicates that Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s two sons—Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar and Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr (d. 890/1485; see Chart 1, no. 17)Footnote ⁶¹—as well as his daughters, were present at these sessions.Footnote ⁶² This detail reveals Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s systematic deployment of his children to maximise family benefit from al-Maqrīzī’s presence. By bringing even his daughters to these sessions, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ensured that they too received licences to transmit this important text.

Following completion of the final two volumes of this work, al-Maqrīzī’s determination to ensure the text’s dissemination and replication in Mecca led him to undertake another journey to the holy city in 839/1435, remaining until the summer of the following year. This second, extended visit enabled completion of the transmission of the entire six-volume work and deepened the relationship between al-Maqrīzī and the Banū Fahd family. The reading sessions on this occasion featured a generational shift: while Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad remained present as an honoured auditor, his son, Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr served as the primary reader. This transition was strategically significant. It demonstrated the younger generation’s competence, positioned Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr as someone al-Maqrīzī personally knew and authorised (rather than merely someone who inherited credentials from his father), and created direct relationships between the visiting Egyptian scholar and the next generation of Banū Fahd scholars. Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr added marginal notes to al-Maqrīzī’s manuscript documenting these sessions (see Figure 1), just as his father had done in 834/1431, maintaining the family’s role in creating the manuscript’s transmission history.Footnote ⁶³

Figure 1.

A marginal reading statement written by Muḥibb al-Dīn in al-Maqrīzī’s holograph of his Imtāʿ al-asmāʿ.

Figure 1 Long description

The manuscript shows the text: بلغت قراة في المجلس ٦٣ over على مولفه ابقاه اللـه تعالى over وكتب ابو بكر بن فهد الهاشمي.

Source: MS Şehid Ali Paşa 1887 (Istanbul, Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi), fol. 126a. Courtesy of Süleymaniye Kütüphanesi.

Upon completing the reading of the first volume, Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar inscribed a formal certificate of audition (samāʿ) at the text’s conclusion, carefully enumerating all those present.Footnote ⁶⁴ This certificate represented a crucial legal and scholarly document: it authenticated that the named individuals had attended the complete reading, had heard the text correctly, and were therefore authorised to transmit it to others. Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s responsibility for writing this certificate—rather than his father or brother—suggests his emerging prominence and his particular expertise in the formal protocols of hadith transmission.

The extended interaction with al-Maqrīzī during these two visits yielded substantial benefits for the family’s reputation. Al-Maqrīzī, despite being significantly senior to the younger generation of Banū Fahd scholars, explicitly recognised their scholarly potential. In his own writings, he characterised both Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad and his son Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar in remarkably positive terms:

This assessment carries particular weight given its source and timing. Al-Maqrīzī was one of the most prominent historians and scholars of his generation, whose judgement commanded respect throughout the Mamluk scholarly world. His characterisation of Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad and Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar as ‘the hadith scholars of the Hijaz’ asserted their preeminence in the region. The prediction that Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar would achieve high rank was especially significant given that he was still at the beginning of his career when al-Maqrīzī met him in the mid 830s/early 1430s—he was in his early twenties. This endorsement from a senior authority provided crucial validation that could be cited by the family and that would influence other scholars’ perceptions of Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s capabilities.Footnote ⁶⁶

Al-Maqrīzī’s praise emphasised specific qualities valued in hadith scholarship: phenomenal memory, the ability to retain and accurately recall thousands of traditions and their chains of transmission; intelligence, the capacity for critical analysis and sound judgement about textual variants and chain authenticity; and diligence in actively collecting, hearing, and reading traditions rather than passively receiving whatever materials were easily available. These qualities could be cultivated through systematic education—precisely what Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad had provided—but also required individual aptitude, suggesting that Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar possessed both the proper training and the natural ability necessary for scholarly excellence.

The relationship established between Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad and his children with al-Maqrīzī was neither accidental nor unique—it exemplified a deliberate, replicable strategy that the Banū Fahd would systematically apply with other prominent scholars. This pattern of intensive engagement with visiting luminaries became a defining characteristic of the family’s approach to network building, demonstrating their understanding that sustained scholarly reputation required multiple authoritative endorsements rather than dependence on a single relationship, however prestigious.Footnote ⁶⁷ Among these later relationships, that with al-Sakhāwī proved exceptionally significant and enduring. Al-Sakhāwī’s impact on the Banū Fahd—and reciprocally, their impact on the preservation and transmission of his works—was extraordinary in its scope and intimacy. Unlike al-Maqrīzī, whose contacts with the family occurred during relatively brief pilgrimage visits, al-Sakhāwī developed a sustained relationship spanning decades, involving multiple family members across three generations, and producing extensive documentation in the form of copied manuscripts, biographical notices, and mutual citations.Footnote ⁶⁸

Legitimising authority: dictionaries of authorities

The extensive network the Banū Fahd cultivated served multiple interconnected purposes: it provided access to rare texts and elevated chains of transmission, it created relationships that facilitated educational opportunities to family members, and it enhanced the family’s reputation by association with external scholars. However, scholarly networks required documentation and public demonstration to serve their full legitimising function. This need was met through the compilation of dictionaries of authorities—biographical works focused on the scholars from whom the author had studied or received licences. These dictionaries took various forms and bore different names: muʿjam al-shuyūkh, mashyakhah or fihrist, fahrasah, and thabat.Footnote ⁶⁹ Despite variations in title and organisation, these works shared common purposes. They documented the author’s teachers and the texts or traditions for which he had received authorisation, they displayed the breadth and quality of his education (demonstrating study with numerous or particularly eminent authorities), and they provided evidence of his qualifications as a transmitter. Compilation of such dictionaries was an established practice among hadith scholars, and several Banū Fahd members produced their own versions, both for themselves and, significantly, for prominent traditionists of their time.Footnote ⁷⁰ This dual production—personal dictionaries documenting the author’s own credentials and commissioned dictionaries documenting others’ credentials—served distinct but complementary functions. For the Banū Fahd, these dictionaries also contributed to family memory and identity, documenting relationships across generations and creating resources that subsequent family members could consult to understand their scholarly heritage.

The compilation of dictionaries for prominent scholars outside the family served different strategic purposes. When a Banū Fahd scholar compiled a muʿjam or mashyakhah documenting another scholar’s teachers and licences, he provided a valuable service that created obligations and strengthened relationships. These commissioned works required substantial research: gathering information about the subject’s teachers, verifying the accuracy of that information, and organising it systematically. The compiler demonstrated his own scholarly competence through the quality of this work while simultaneously honouring the subject and documenting his credentials for posterity.

Taken together with the biographical dictionaries that several Banū Fahd members compiled (documenting contemporary or recent scholars more broadly), these dictionaries of authorities contributed significantly to establishing the family’s collective scholarly authority and standing. As is well known from studies of biographical literature in Islamic civilisation, such works served not only documentary functions but also performative ones: they displayed the author’s erudition, demonstrated his integration into scholarly networks, and asserted his qualification to judge others’ credentials and accomplishments.Footnote ⁷¹

For a scholarly dynasty like the Banū Fahd, the accumulation of such works across multiple family members created a cumulative effect. When father, son, grandson, and great-grandson each compiled dictionaries of authorities documenting their respective teachers and networks, these works collectively demonstrated sustained family engagement with scholarship across generations. Later scholars consulting these dictionaries could trace the family’s intellectual lineage, recognise their consistent relationships with prominent authorities, and verify their credentials as authentic transmitters with properly documented chains reaching back through authenticated channels to foundational sources. The production of dictionaries thus represented another dimension of the multifaceted strategy through which the Banū Fahd forged and maintained their scholarly dynasty.

Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s methodological arsenal

As a well-established scholarly family, the Banū Fahd employed similar tools, adapting them to their specific needs and interests. In his biographical entry for Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad, al-Sakhāwī provides a comprehensive overview of his information management practices, noting that ‘he copied a lot in his own hand, created notebooks, summarised and excerpted [texts].’Footnote ⁷⁴ The verbs al-Sakhāwī employs denote the distinct features of each tool: besides copying complete texts (kataba)—essential for creating personal reference copies of works not otherwise accessible—Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad maintained notebooks (jamaʿa al-majāmīʿ) where he recorded passages worth preserving for future reference. He prepared summaries (ikhtaṣara) of texts that did not require full copies but contained sufficiently valuable material to warrant extracting key arguments and information. Finally, he compiled excerpts (intaqá) that isolated specific passages of particular relevance to his research interests.

However, al-Sakhāwī’s account, though valuable, is incomplete. He neglected to mention that Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad also prepared lists and indexes—perhaps the most time-intensive yet ultimately most useful of his scholarly tools. One such list has been preserved (MS 10667, Cairo, al-Maktabah al-Azharīyah), though it was mistakenly catalogued as a muḫtaṣar asmāʾ al-ṣaḥābah (Abridgement of the names of the Companions [of the Prophet]).Footnote ⁷⁵ It is, in fact, a tajrīd (list) of Ibn al-Athīr’s (d. 630/1233) Usd al-ghābah fī maʿrifat al-ṣaḥābah, which, with its 7,714 entries, is one of the most comprehensive biographical dictionaries of the Prophet’s Companions. Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad systematically compiled a list of all names appearing in Ibn al-Athīr’s multivolume work, recording basic information for each entry (see Figure 2). Such a list, prepared in Mecca in 817/1414, when Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad was 29 years old, served a single, crucial purpose: providing rapid access to essential biographical data and, when necessary, enabling the user to locate the complete biography as quickly as possible in the original text. The list thus functioned as both a finding aid and a quick-reference tool, dramatically reducing the time required to consult this massive work.

Figure 2.

An illustration of the index prepared by al-Taqī Muḥammad Ibn Fahd for Ibn al-Athīr’s Usd al-Ghābah showing the list of of female Companions.

Figure 2 Long description

An aged manuscript page featuring Arabic text written in a traditional script. The text is arranged in lines with some words highlighted or emphasized. Handwritten annotations are visible, adding additional notes or emphasis to certain parts of the text. The page shows signs of wear, indicating its historical nature.

Source: MS 10667 (Cairo, al-Maktabah al-Azharīyah), fol. 155b. Courtesy of al-Maktabah al-Azharīyah.

These tools were created primarily for personal use, allowing scholars to work more efficiently with their own research materials. However, they frequently proved useful to other scholars as well, and in the case of the Banū Fahd, to successive family members who inherited not only the books themselves but also the finding aids that made them accessible. This intergenerational transmission of both texts and tools represents a crucial dimension of the family’s success: each generation built upon the organisational infrastructure created by its predecessors.

The methodological strategies developed by Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad were systematically transmitted to his descendants, who refined and expanded them. His son, Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar, became particularly renowned for preparing such tools, earning recognition among his contemporaries as an exceptionally skilled indexer. In the entry al-Sakhāwī devoted to him in his biographical dictionary, he emphasises Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s contribution:

Al-Sakhāwī’s assessment may appear somewhat backhanded—suggesting that Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s greatest scholarly achievement consisted of preparing indexes rather than producing original works, which he did—yet it simultaneously reveals the immense practical value contemporaries placed in such tools. The works Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar indexed represent major reference sources in multiple fields: Abū Nuʿaym al-Iṣbahānī’s (d. 430/1038) Ḥilyat al-awliyāʾ wa-ṭabaqāt al-aṣfiyāʾ (a ten-volume biographical dictionary of Sufis), al-Qāḍī ʿIyāḍ’s (d. 544/1149) Tartīb al-madārik wa-taqrīb al-masālik (a biographical dictionary of Mālikīs), Ibn Abī Uṣaybiʿah’s (d. 668/1270) ʿUyūn al-anbāʾ fī ṭabaqāt al-aṭibbāʾ (a biographical dictionary of physicians), Ibn Rajab’s (d. 795/1393) al-Dhayl ʿalá ṭabaqāt al-ḥanābilah (a biographical dictionary of Ḥanbalīs), and al-Dhahabī’s (d. 748/1348) Tadhkirat al-ḥuffāẓ (a biographical dictionary of hadith transmitters) and its continuations by various historians.

Each of these works presented formidable challenges to users seeking specific information, and Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s indexes transformed them into readily accessible reference tools. Moreover, al-Sakhāwī’s list is far from exhaustive, as he reveals in another place an additional indexing project (tartīb) regarding al-Maqrīzī’s Durar al-ʿuqūd al-farīdah fī tarājim al-aʿyān al-mufīdah (a biographical dictionary of al-Maqrīzī’s contemporaries) that Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar had consulted during al-Maqrīzī’s last pilgrimage to Mecca, an index al-Sakhāwī took advantage of when compiling his own biographical dictionary.Footnote ⁷⁷ Al-Sakhāwī’s explicit statement of purpose—‘to make it easy to find it and check’—confirms the interpretation of these indexes as practical tools designed to facilitate rapid consultation and verification of information. This functionality was essential in an era when scholars needed to verify chains of transmission, check biographical details, and cross-reference information across multiple sources.

None of Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s indexes has yet been conclusively identified in manuscript collections, though their existence is well documented in biographical sources. However, his interest in indexes extended beyond his own production to collecting indexes prepared by others. He took copy, for instance, of Ibn Ḥajar’s Tajrīd al-Wāfī, a list of entries in al-Ṣafadī’s (d. 764/1363) massive biographical dictionary al-Wāfī bi-l-wafayāt—itself an indispensable reference work containing thousands of biographies (see Figure 3).Footnote ⁷⁸

Figure 3.

The end of Ibn Ḥajar’s Tajrīd al-Wāfī, copied by al-Najm ʿUmar Ibn Fahd.

Figure 3 Long description

The page contains handwritten Arabic text arranged in several lines, with some sections highlighted in a different style. Two circular seals are present at the bottom of the page, along with a faint circular stamp. The text appears to be formal or official, possibly part of a historical document or manuscript. The seals suggest authentication or endorsement, typical of official documents from historical periods.

Source: MS Feyzullah 1413 (Istanbul, Millet Kütüphanesi), fol. 269b. Courtesy of the Millet Kütüphanesi.

The indexing tradition continued into the next generation. Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s son, ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (see Chart 1, no. 33), is credited with preparing a tartīb of al-Dhahabī’s Ṭabaqāt al-qurrāʾ (a biographical dictionary of Qur’an reciters),Footnote ⁷⁹ demonstrating the family’s sustained commitment to this form of scholarly service across at least three generations.

Notebooks: personal archives of scholarship

Beyond copying, indexing, and summarising, several family members maintained notebooks that documented their ongoing intellectual work. These notebooks are variously described in sources as majmūʿ (pl. majāmīʿ, i.e. collectanea) and tadhkirah (miscellanies, memoranda).Footnote ⁸⁰ Such tools proved invaluable to scholars who wanted to preserve evolving ideas, record reading notes, compile useful quotations, draft preliminary versions of texts, and create personal reference collections of information gathered from diverse sources. The practice was widespread among Mamluk scholars, with prominent examples including al-Ṣafadī’s 50-volume tadhkirah,Footnote ⁸¹ Ibn Ḥajar’s tadhkirah (one of which survives),Footnote ⁸² and al-Maqrīzī’s notebooks (partially preserved in his holograph manuscripts).

The Banū Fahd embraced this practice enthusiastically. As noted, al-Sakhāwī indicated that Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad ‘created notebooks’ (jamaʿa al-majāmīʿ), suggesting he maintained multiple volumes serving different purposes. His son Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar wrote a tadhkirah to which he gave the evocative title Nūr al-ʿuyūn bi-mā tafarraqa min al-funūn (The light of the eyes concerning scattered topics from various disciplines)—a title that captures the essence of such miscellanies as repositories for diverse materials gleaned from wide reading. Unfortunately, no example of Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s or Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s notebooks and miscellanies have been conclusively identified in extant collections.

However, we do possess one precious volume (MS Ar. 3857, Dublin, Chester Beatty Library) from the notebook Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s son, Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá (d. 885/1481; see Chart 1, no. 32),Footnote ⁸³ prepared—offering us a rare window into the actual practice of scholarly note-taking in the Banū Fahd family. The manuscript is incomplete, lacking its beginning as indicated by the quire number in the upper left corner (marking this as the ninth quire), but what remains provides valuable insight into how Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá conceived and utilised his notebook. The volume contains a heterogeneous mix of materials: extracts and summaries from published texts, personal observations and notes, copied passages for future reference, and preliminary draft of his own writings. A date (874/1470) added at the end of one of the excerpts, towards the end of the volume (fol. 91a), indicates that Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá worked on this notebook when he was 26 years old.

The manuscript now opens with selectionsFootnote ⁸⁴ taken from al-Dīnawarī’s (d. 333/944) al-Mujālasah wa-jawāhir al-ʿilm, an early Islamic compendium of reports (akhbār) on various topics. Significantly, Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá added methodological notes explaining his procedures: he indicated that he had omitted the chains of transmission (isnād) for each report (khabar)—standard practice when excerpting for personal use, as the chains could be verified in the original if needed—and that his excerpts did not follow the sequence in which they appeared in al-Dīnawarī’s text.Footnote ⁸⁵ Instead, Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá had reorganised the material according to his own interests and needs. These annotations served multiple audiences: they reminded Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá himself of his selection criteria and editorial interventions, while also informing potential later readers—including family members—about the nature and organisation of the excerpted material.

Among the other selections preserved in this notebook is a particularly revealing example: an excerpt from Ibn Ḥajar’s Tajrīd al-Wāfī, the list of entries in al-Ṣafadī’s biographical dictionary that Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá’s father, Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar, had copied in 862/1457.Footnote ⁸⁶ It means that Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá extracted information he deemed useful for his own research projects while reading—or immediately after reading—the text his father had copied 13 years before. This example beautifully illustrates the interconnected nature of the family’s scholarly activities: Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s copying made the text available, and Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá exploited this new resource by creating his own working notes from it. In another place in the notebook, Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá even quotes from his father’s miscellanies (tadhkirah), when the latter was still alive.Footnote ⁸⁷ Furthermore, after Muḥyī al-Dīn Yaḥyá’s death in 885/1480, at the age of 37, his notebook passed into the hands of his nephew, Muḥibb al-Dīn Jār Allāh, who added his own material based on his readings on some leaves.Footnote ⁸⁸

This example reveals several important dimensions of knowledge management in the Banū Fahd family. First, it demonstrates how different scholarly tools complemented one another: the copied manuscript served as a permanent reference, while the notebook provided quick access to particularly relevant information. Second, it illustrates intergenerational collaboration, with sons building directly upon their fathers’ work. Finally, it reveals the dynamic, ongoing nature of scholarly work—not simply the production of finished texts but the continuous accumulation, organisation, and reorganisation of information in response to evolving research interests.

The evidence of methodological continuity across multiple generations of the Banū Fahd reveals a family that did not simply inherit scholarly status but actively cultivated and transmitted specific practical skills and working methods. Each generation learned not only to read and write but to manage information systematically—to create tools that would make their own work more efficient and that would serve family members and other scholars for decades to come. These practices formed part of the family’s cultural capital, transmitted through apprenticeship-like relationships between fathers and sons, and constituted a significant element of their sustained scholarly success.

The economics and practice of textual access

Access to texts was a primary concern for medieval scholars, fundamentally shaping their intellectual lives and research possibilities. Upon locating a desired work, wealthy scholars attempted to purchase it outright—a solution that provided permanent access but required substantial financial resources, as books were expensive commodities in the manuscript age. Others, lacking such means, sought to borrow copies for transcription, either in full or in selective extracts depending on their specific needs and the time available to them. This transcription work was labour-intensive, requiring weeks or months for multivolume works, a time not equally available to all scholars.

This pattern of accessing texts through copying, however, was not universal across the scholarly elite. Renowned scholars such as Ibn Ḥajar and al-Maqrīzī left numerous holographs of their own works, including notebooks and summaries of other texts, yet they are not primarily known as copyists of other authors’ complete works. Their scholarly reputations rest on their original contributions rather than their skill in manuscript reproduction. The Banū Fahd present precisely the opposite case: while several family members produced original works, they earned particular fame for their exceptional skill in copying the works of others.

Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr: a master copyist

Several family members earned widespread renown for the excellence of their handwriting (khaṭṭ) and the quality of their manuscript copies. Al-Sakhāwī, who personally knew multiple members of the family and maintained close friendships with some, expressed particular admiration for Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr’s calligraphic skill. Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s son, dedicated much of his scholarly career to manuscript production, as al-Sakhāwī describes:

This testimony reveals several significant aspects of Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr’s activity. First, his copying served both family needs (producing texts for his father and brother, hence the family library) and external commissions (working ‘for others’), suggesting that his skills were sought after beyond the family circle. Second, the works he copied were substantial multivolume compilations: Ibn Ḥajar’s (d. 852/1449) Fatḥ al-bārī, a monumental multivolume work, of which he produced two copies, Ibn Kathīr’s (d. 774/1373) Qur’an commentary, which spans eight volumes in modern printed editions; and Ibn al-Athīr’s universal history, which extends to 11 volumes. The sheer volume of text Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr produced over his career represents an extraordinary investment of time and labour.

Most remarkably, al-Sakhāwī emphasises that Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr achieved superior calligraphic quality while maintaining rapid copying speed and textual accuracy—a rare combination of virtues. Speed was essential for productivity, accuracy for scholarly credibility, and beautiful handwriting for the manuscript’s marketability and usability. Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr’s mastery of all three dimensions marked him as an exceptional practitioner of the copyist’s art.

The value placed on Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr’s work is further demonstrated by his son Sharaf al-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim’s (see Chart 1, no. 30) actions. When the latter travelled to India, where he eventually settled, he specifically brought one of his father’s copies of Fatḥ al-bārī in his luggage and presented it to the local ruler.Footnote ⁹⁰ This gift served multiple purposes: it demonstrated Sharaf al-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim’s scholarly credentials through association with his father’s renowned work, provided the ruler with a prestigious and valuable manuscript, and advertised the Banū Fahd family’s scholarly reputation in a distant region. The fact that Sharaf al-Dīn Abū al-Qāsim chose this particular manuscript—rather than other possible gifts—underscores the prestige attached to Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr’s copies.

Al-Taqī Ibn Fahd: training the next generation

Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad deserves special recognition for systematically training his children in the art of copying as extensively as he practised it himself. This pedagogical commitment ensured the transmission of practical skills alongside theoretical knowledge, creating a family culture in which textual reproduction was valued both as a scholarly service and as a means of engaging deeply with texts. By copying a text, one reads it with exceptional care, notices its structure and arguments, and internalises its content in ways that casual reading cannot achieve. The act of copying thus served educational purposes beyond merely producing a new manuscript.

Only one example of Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s own copying activity has been preserved, but it provides valuable insights into his working methods and productivity. The manuscript is a copy of the second volume of al-Subkī’s (d. 771/1370) al-Ṭabaqāt al-wusṭá, a biographical dictionary of Shāfiʿī scholars. In the colophon, Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad reveals crucial information about his work. He notes that his exemplar was itself copied from the author’s holograph, thus placing his copy only one step removed from al-Subkī’s original. He completed the volume in 817/1414 and specifies that he carried out the work in 20 days (nahār, i.e. daylight hours) in his house facing the Kaʿbah.Footnote ⁹¹ This information enables us to calculate Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s copying rate with precision. The manuscript comprises 237 leaves, with 27 lines of small handwriting to the page. This means Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad produced 6,400 lines in 20 days, averaging approximately 320 lines per day, or roughly one quire (typically ten leaves or 20 pages) daily.Footnote ⁹²

Strategic copying: building networks through textual access

One of Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad’s key strategies for strengthening his children’s scholarly networks involved connecting them with the greatest scholars of his time during their visits to Mecca. Through these contacts, his children gained multiple benefits: personal relationships with leading authorities, access to rare works in the scholars’ possession, licences of transmission for these works and others, and opportunities to make copies before the visiting scholars departed. This integrated approach to network building and knowledge acquisition exemplifies the family’s strategic thinking about scholarly advancement.

Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s interactions with al-Maqrīzī illustrate this strategy’s implementation. During the reading sessions (samāʿ) in 834/1431 for Imtāʿ al-asmāʿ mentioned above, Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar was authorised by the author to copy the first four volumes of the still-incomplete text—a significant undertaking given the work’s length and the relatively brief window of opportunity provided by al-Maqrīzī’s pilgrimage stay.Footnote ⁹³ When al-Maqrīzī returned in 839/1435 with the completed six-volume work, Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar participated in new reading sessions and presumably completed his copy.

During this final pilgrimage, al-Maqrīzī also brought other works, including his biographical dictionary of contemporaries, Durar al-ʿuqūd al-farīdah. Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar was permitted to consult it and take selective notes (mustafīdan), as his consultation note inscribed on the first volume of al-Maqrīzī’s holograph attests.Footnote ⁹⁴ This note serves as both acknowledgement of access granted and documentation of the textual tradition, potentially supporting Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s future citations of the work.

One year after al-Maqrīzī’s death, Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar succeeded in consulting al-Maqrīzī’s holograph of al-Sulūk in Mecca. The manuscript was likely brought by al-Maqrīzī’s sole heir, his nephew, as evidenced by his ownership mark on the title page.Footnote ⁹⁵ This episode demonstrates both the family’s sustained relationships (maintaining contact with al-Maqrīzī’s heir) and their persistence in pursuing access to important texts even after an author’s death.

Building the collection: copied manuscripts and their sources

Thanks to the testimony of the Aleppan scholar al-Shammāʿ,Footnote ⁹⁶ who was granted access to the family library during his early tenth-/sixteenth-century stay in Mecca, we possess detailed information about copies made by Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar and his son ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz that remained in the family’s collection. These manuscripts reveal the breadth of the family’s copying activity and their interests across multiple scholarly fields.

Among the works copied by Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar, al-Shammāʿ examined Ibn al-ʿAdīm’s (d. 660/1262) Bughyat al-ṭalab, a ten-volume history of Aleppo. Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar transcribed this substantial work from a set of holograph volumes that their Cairene owner lent to him in Mecca in 869/1464–1465, as consultation notes found on each of the volumes confirm.Footnote ⁹⁷ Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar had also copied al-Dhahabī’s Ṭabaqāt al-ḥuffāẓ and its supplements by al-Ḥusaynī—works central to hadith scholarship that Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar, as noted earlier, also indexed. Additionally, he transcribed al-Suyūṭī’s (d. 911/1505) Bughyat al-wuʿāt fī ṭabaqāt al-lughawīyīn wa-l-nuḥāt, a biographical dictionary of grammarians and lexicographers, demonstrating the family’s interests beyond hadith scholarship into Arabic linguistic sciences.

As for ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz, al-Shammāʿ saw his copies of al-Fāsī’s (d. 832/1429) Shifāʾ al-gharām bi-akhbār al-balad al-ḥarām, an important history of Mecca’s sacred sites and history, and of his own father’s Itḥāf al-wará bi-akhbār umm al-qurá, likewise a history of Mecca. The copying of Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s work by his son ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz represents intergenerational scholarly collaboration: the son ensuring wider dissemination of his father’s historical scholarship while simultaneously preserving it for the family library.

The al-Sakhāwī connection: precious textual witnesses

However, Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar’s and ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s relationship with al-Sakhāwī proved most significant for textual transmission and preservation. Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar and his son copied several of al-Sakhāwī’s works, in some cases not once but twice, with each copy reflecting a different authorial version, as al-Sakhāwī himself corroborates in his autobiography.Footnote ⁹⁸ Al-Sakhāwī particularly appreciated both the elegant handwriting of the father and son and the accuracy of their work—qualities essential for reliable textual transmission. Many of these copies have been preserved, sometimes representing the two distinct versions of the same text, providing modern scholars with precious witnesses to al-Sakhāwī’s compositional process.

In many cases, these copies were collated in al-Sakhāwī’s presence, and they incorporate his autograph corrections and emendations. Such manuscripts represent extraordinary textual witnesses, combining the scribal accuracy of skilled copyists with the author’s own additions. Among the most significant preserved copies, we can enumerate:

• - al-Ḍawʿ al-lāmiʿ, a copy made by ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in 897/1492Footnote ⁹⁹ and another one dated 899.Footnote ¹⁰⁰ These copies of al-Sakhāwī’s magnum opus were particularly valuable, as the work contained thousands of biographies and was frequently consulted by later scholars.

• - Irshād al-ghāwī, al-Sakhāwī’s autobiography: a copy of the first version in ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s hand including al-Sakhāwī’s autograph additions,Footnote ¹⁰¹ and a copy of the second version by the same scribe.Footnote ¹⁰² Both manuscripts contain al-Sakhāwī’s additions, documenting his ongoing refinement of the text.

• - al-Jawāhir wa-l-durar fī tarjamat Ibn Ḥajar, the biography of his master Ibn Ḥajar: a copy of the first version by ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz,Footnote ¹⁰³ and a copy of the second version by the same dated 871/1466.Footnote ¹⁰⁴ Both include al-Sakhāwī’s autograph corrections and emendations.

• - Wajīz al-kalām fī al-dhayl ʿalá Duwal al-islām, a continuation of al-Dhahabī’s chronicle: a copy by Najm al-Dīn ʿUmar with al-Sakhāwī’s autograph additions and corrections.Footnote ¹⁰⁵

• - al-Iʿlān bi-l-tawbīkh: a copy by ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz dated 900/1495.Footnote ¹⁰⁶

• - Tajrīd ḥawāshī shaykhihi ʿalá Tanqīḥ al-Zarkashī, a list of Ibn Ḥajar’s glosses on al-Zarkashī’s (d. 794/1392) work on the words featuring in al-Bukhārī’s Ṣaḥīḥ: a copy by ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz dated 906/1501 in a collection of texts.Footnote ¹⁰⁷

• - Tawḍīḥ al-asar li-tadhkirat Ibn al-Mulaqqin fī ʿilm al-athar: a copy by ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz dated 900/1495.Footnote ¹⁰⁸

• - a collection of al-Sakhāwī’s treatises: with the exception of the first one, all were copied by ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz in 885/1490 and 900/1495.Footnote ¹⁰⁹

These precious copies, because they derived from the author’s holographs and incorporated his corrections and additions, became part of the family library’s holdings and were highly sought after by visiting scholars. They represented not merely texts but textual traditions, documenting al-Sakhāwī’s compositional evolution and providing authoritative versions for future transmission. The above-mentioned al-Shammāʿ was granted access to some of these holdings, though notably, during his first visit, ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz denied him access to the copy of al-Ḍawʾ al-lāmiʿ on the grounds that it contained harsh criticisms of some of al-Sakhāwī’s contemporaries—a decision that reveals both sensitivity to the text’s potentially offensive content and the discretionary control the family exercised over access to their collection.

Generational continuity in copying practice

Substantial evidence demonstrates that the copying tradition was systematically transmitted from one generation to the next, maintaining the family’s reputation for skilled manuscript production well into the tenth/sixteenth century. When Wajīh al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān (d. 873/1469; see Chart 1, no. 29), Muḥibb al-Dīn Abū Bakr’s son, travelled to Cairo, he transcribed several important texts, including multiple copies of al-Maqrīzī’s al-Sulūk—the very work his grandfather’s generation had first accessed.Footnote ¹¹⁰ Wajīh al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Raḥmān’s premature death in 873/1468 at age 32 makes his copying activity all the more remarkable, demonstrating the family’s commitment to this practice even among younger members who died before reaching full scholarly maturity. His productivity despite his brief life testifies to early training and sustained dedication.

The tradition continued with subsequent generations. Muḥibb al-Dīn Jār Allāh (ʿIzz al-Dīn ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz’s son) and his son ʿIzz al-Dīn Muḥammad (see Chart 1, no. 39) maintained the copying practice into the early tenth/sixteenth century.Footnote ¹¹¹ By this time, the family had sustained its reputation as skilled copyists for more than a century, with at least five generations engaging in systematic manuscript production. This continuity represents a remarkable achievement in maintaining practical skills, scholarly networks, and family reputation across dramatic changes in the broader Mamluk world, including the Ottoman conquest of 923/1517.Footnote ¹¹²

The multiple functions of copying

In view of what precedes, it can be concluded that the Banū Fahd’s sustained engagement with manuscript copying served multiple overlapping functions that contributed to their scholarly success. First, copying provided deep engagement with texts, facilitating comprehension and memorisation in ways that casual reading could not achieve. Second, it created personal reference copies for the family library, building the collection that supported their research and teaching. Third, it generated income or exchangeable services, as skilled copyists were always in demand and could trade their labour for access to other texts or scholarly favours. Fourth, it built and maintained scholarly networks, as copying a visiting scholar’s work demonstrated respect, provided him with additional copies for dissemination, and created ongoing relationships. Fifth, it established the family’s reputation for reliability and precision—essential qualities for hadith transmitters, whose authority depended on meticulous attention to textual accuracy. Finally, it provided tangible artefacts—beautifully written, carefully corrected manuscripts—that served as permanent advertisements for the family’s scholarly credentials.

This multifaceted practice, transmitted systematically across generations through apprenticeship-style training, represents a crucial dimension of the Banū Fahd’s success in forging and maintaining their scholarly dynasty. Their excellence in copying complemented their other practices—network building, knowledge management, and original authorship—creating a comprehensive approach to scholarly life that proved sustainable across multiple generations. Library development was another strategy that Taqī al-Dīn Muḥammad implemented.