Al-Qand fi dhikr ?ulama? Samarqand

In the Arabic literary tradition, biographies form a class of their own and have always been widely used. Whether about a single person or about some group, their shared objective was to provide an authoritative account of someone's lineage, social or literary career, academic or religious background or affiliation, or connection to some historic event. As examples one could mention Ibn Hisham's (d. 218/834) Sirat Muhammad rasuli 'llah, Ibn Abi Usaybi?a's (d. 668/1270) Kitab ?uyun al-anba? fi tabaqat al-atibba?, or Nur al-Din al-Tukhi's (d. ca 900/1494) Qudat Misr. The author of the present work, Najm al-Din al-Nasafi (d. 537/1142-43), was a long-time resident of Samarqand and widely known and respected as jurist. He wrote more than 30 works, in Persian and in Arabic. The present volume contains an inventory of hadith scholars bearing some connection to Samarqand. Its importance lies mainly in the many names of people, places, and books which are otherwise entirely unknown.