Fada'il Bayt al-Maqdis wa al-Khalil wa fada'il al-Sham.

• Author: LITTLE, DONALD P.
• Position: Review

Fada'il Bayt al-Maqdis wa al-Khalil wa fada'il al-Sham. By ABU AL-MA ALI AL-MUSHARRAF B. AL-MURAJJX B. IBRAHIM AL-MAQOISI, edited with an introduction by OFER LIVNEKAFRI. Shraram, Israel: ALMASHREQ, LTD., 1995. Pp. ix + 419.

This treatise is one of the two earliest surviving works of the "merits of Jerusalem" literature and dates, probably, to the third decade of the eleventh century. (The editor's conversion in the "Introduction" [p. 1] of "the 430s A.H." "to c. 1130-40 A.D." should be corrected to c. 1038-1048 A.D.) Despite the late date, however, it is now believed that it contains ahadith originating in the Umayyad period; hence its importance for the history of early Muslim attitudes toward the sanctity of Jerusalem. Very little is known about the author other than the names of his teachers quoted in his isnads, and few of these are listed in the standard biographical dictionaries. Moreover, almost all of the research published about him and his work so far by the editor has appeared...