أسد الغابة في معرفة الصحابة-ابن حزم

Asad al-Ghabah fi Ma'rifat al-Sahabah

One of the great classical biographical dictionaries of the Companions of the Prophet ﷺ, compiled by the renowned historian ʿIzz al-Dīn Ibn al-Athīr al-Jazarī (d. 630 AH). Ibn al-Athīr sought to gather into a single comprehensive work the names and accounts of the Companions preserved throughout the earlier literature, resulting in biographies of more than seven thousand Ṣaḥābah.

The entries are arranged alphabetically and generally record the Companion’s name and lineage, relevant details of his or her life, reports narrated from the Prophet ﷺ, those who transmitted from them, and significant events in which they participated. Ibn al-Athīr drew extensively upon earlier works devoted to identifying the Companions, while also consulting major sources of ḥadīth, sīrah, maghāzī, genealogy and history, making the work an important repository of material scattered across earlier sources.

A particular strength of Usd al-Ghābah is its breadth: alongside the most famous Companions are thousands of lesser-known figures whose names or accounts survive only briefly in the early sources. Ibn al-Athīr also addresses variant names and genealogies, differing identifications, questions concerning whether an individual was in fact a Companion, and overlapping or duplicate entries inherited from earlier biographical works.

This handsome Dār Ibn Ḥazm edition presents the entire work in a single large volume of 1,656 pages, making this monumental reference considerably more convenient to consult than the traditional multi-volume editions. It is the first Dār Ibn Ḥazm edition, published in 1433 AH/2012, on cream paper with two-colour printing.

An indispensable classical reference for the study of the Ṣaḥābah, ḥadīth narrators, Prophetic biography and early Islamic history, and one of the most important works ever compiled specifically on the Companions.