الخير التام في ذكر الأرض المقدسة وحدودها

al-Khayr al-Tamm fi Dhikr al-Ard al-Muqaddasah wa-Hududiha

A valuable historical-geographical treatise devoted to defining the Sacred Land (al-Arḍ al-Muqaddasah) and clarifying the geographical boundaries of Palestine and al-Shām. It was authored by the Palestinian scholar Shaykh Ṣāliḥ ibn Aḥmad ibn Muḥammad Ṣāliḥ al-Tamurtāshī al-ʿUmarī al-Ghazzī al-Ḥanafī, a member of the distinguished Tamurtāshī scholarly family of Gaza.

The particular importance of the work lies in its focused treatment of the boundaries of three closely related geographical designations: the Sacred Land, Palestine and the lands of al-Shām. According to the editors, it is the first independent treatise known to them devoted specifically to defining the boundaries of these three regions.

This edition is based upon ten manuscript copies, five of which were transcribed during the author's lifetime. The editors carefully established the text through comparison of these manuscripts and supplemented it with scholarly annotations. They also draw attention to two later scholars who transmitted and discussed the work: the Shāfiʿī Mufti of Jerusalem Muḥammad ibn Muḥammad al-Khalīlī al-Maqdisī (d. 1147 AH) in al-Murād bi-al-Arḍ allatī Bāraka Allāhu fīhā, and the Mufti of Homs Khālid ibn Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd al-Sattār al-Atāsī al-Ḥimṣī (d. 1326 AH) in al-Murād mimmā Ḥawla al-Masjid al-Aqṣā alladhī Bāraka Allāhu Ḥawlahu.

The volume is further enhanced by a substantial biographical study of Ṣāliḥ al-Tamurtāshī, reconstructing his life, teachers, students, writings and scholarly milieu from printed, manuscript and previously little-known sources. It also reproduces a collection of his ijāzāt, including eight received from his teachers and two granted to his student ʿAlī al-ʿImādī.

A carefully researched edition of a rare Palestinian scholarly text, particularly valuable for readers interested in the historical geography of Palestine and al-Shām, the concept and extent of the Sacred Land, Jerusalem studies, and the scholarly heritage of Gaza.