General · EdgepediaOctober 10, 20265 min read

Al-Zunburi

Al-Zunburi (الزنبري), fully Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Mas'ud ibn 'Amr ibn Idris ibn 'Ikrima al-Zunbari al-Misri, was an Egyptian hadith transmitter of the fourth century AH who died in Ramadan 333 AH. Al-Dhahabi places him in the nineteenth tabaqa (generation) of his Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', and the structured narrator database at Sunnah.com counts him in the thirteenth generation of transmitters, resident in Egypt and described as a Shafi'i.¹^•²^•³

Key fact	Detail
Name	Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Mas'ud ibn 'Amr ibn Idris ibn 'Ikrima, al-Zunbari al-Misri¹^•³
Death	Ramadan 333 AH; birth date and place not recorded¹^•³
Residence	Egypt; sources call him simply "Misri"¹^•²
Teachers	Bahr ibn Nasr al-Khawlani, al-Rabi' (identified variously, see below), Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Tarsusi's circle, Bakkar ibn Qutayba, and others¹^•²
Students	Ibn al-Muqri', Ibn Yunus, Umar ibn Shahin, Abu al-Qasim al-Tabarani, Abu Dhar al-Tamimi, and Lakhmi students¹^•²^•³
Grading	Al-Dhahabi: "lahu rihla wa fahm"; database grade: "saduq hasan al-hadith"; Muslim ibn al-Qasim al-Andalusi: "la ba'sa bihi"¹^•²
Works	None recorded in the retrieved biographical notices¹^•³

Name, nisba, and origins

The nisba is vocalized al-Zunbari, with fatha on the za, then nun, then a ba carrying a dot beneath it. Ibn Makula and Ibn al-Sam'ani explain it as a nisba to a grandfather (nisba ila al-jadd), that is, a family name inherited from an ancestor rather than a trade or place.³ Ibn Makula noted that no other narrator of the name al-Zunbari carried the nun in that spelling besides him, and al-Dhahabi's notice also recalls an earlier namesake family line, Sa'id ibn Dawud ibn Abi Zanbar al-Zunbari, a companion of Malik.¹

A later namesake invites confusion: al-Dhahabi's Siyar also carries an entry for Muhammad ibn 'Umar ibn Khalaf ibn Zunbur al-Baghdadi al-Warraq, a Baghdad traditionist called "baqiyyat al-ashyakh", who is a different person entirely.⁴ Al-Subki's Tabaqat al-Shafi'iyya likewise distinguishes our subject from the earlier Muhammad ibn Bashir al-Zunbari of the second generation, noting that Muhammad ibn Bashir belonged to a different generation, the latter's death year was never established.³

Teachers and students

Al-Dhahabi records that he narrated from Bahr ibn Nasr al-Khawlani, al-Rabi' ibn Abd al-Hakam, and a group of others.¹ The identity of "al-Rabi'" is the main point of disagreement among the sources: Ibn Makula's al-Ikmal and Yaqut al-Hamawi's Mu'jam al-Buldan, as cited in the Sunnah.com entry, say he narrated from al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman al-Muradi and Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Hakam, while al-Subki's Tabaqat records, via Ibn Makula and Ibn al-Sam'ani, that he heard from al-Rabi' ibn Sulayman and Muhammad ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Hakam, and al-Dhahabi's own notice reads al-Rabi' ibn Abd al-Hakam. The discrepancy is unresolved in the sources themselves.¹^•²^•³ The Sunnah.com database adds further teachers, including Muhammad ibn Ibrahim al-Khaza'i, Muhammad ibn Abd Allah al-Balisi, Bakkar ibn Qutayba, and Muhammad ibn Abd al-Hakam, and places him among the students of Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Muslim al-Tarsusi.²

His students form a recognizable Egyptian and western circle. Al-Dhahabi lists Ibn al-Muqri', Ibn Yunus, and Umar ibn Shahin among those who narrated from him.¹ Yaqut adds Abu Dhar 'Ammar ibn Muhammad al-Tamimi and Abu al-Qasim al-Tabarani.² Al-Subki's Tabaqat names Abu Bakr Ibn al-Muqri', Abu Hafs ibn Shahin, Abu Sa'id ibn Yunus, and Abu al-Qasim al-Tabarani, and the entry also records two Lakhmi students, Muhammad ibn Umar ibn Hazm al-Lakhmi and Ahmad ibn Abd al-Rahim ibn Kinana al-Lakhmi al-Qurtubi.³ A biography of him appears in al-Mansuri's Irshad al-Qasi wa'l-Dani ila Tarajum Shuyukh al-Hafiz Abi al-Qasim al-Tabarani, a work devoted to the sheikhs of al-Tabarani.³

Grading by the critics

Al-Dhahabi's verdict is brief and favorable: "lahu rihla wa fahm" (he undertook travel for hadith and had understanding), and, citing Ibn Makula's al-Ikmal 4/242, that he "was an accomplished litterateur, of good knowledge of hadith" (adib fadil hasan al-ma'rifa bi-l-hadith).¹ The Sunnah.com narrator database aggregates his grade as "saduq hasan al-hadith" (truthful, of good hadith).² The Andalusi traditionist Musamma (Muslim) ibn al-Qasim al-Andalusi graded him "la ba'sa bihi" (there is no harm in him).²

What the record shows and where it thins

The consistent core across al-Dhahabi, the database aggregations, and al-Subki is small but stable: the name and lineage, residence in Egypt, death in Ramadan 333 AH, and al-Tabarani among his students. Around that core the record thins. No source gives a birth date or birthplace; the ibnalarabi.com entry states both as unknown.³ No works are listed in any of the notices, so nothing is known to survive.¹^•³

Two textual problems recur. The first is the al-Rabi' disagreement described above. The second is a death-year variant: one line in the ibnalarabi.com text reads "thlath wa-thamanin wa-thalathimi'a" (383 AH), which stands against the 333 AH given by al-Dhahabi, the Sunnah.com database, and the entry's own summary field; the 383 reading appears to be a textual corruption of 333.¹^•²^•³ The Sunnah.com structured lists also place al-Tabarani and Umar ibn Shahin among his teachers as well as his students, an apparent database inconsistency against al-Dhahabi's clear listing of both as his students.¹^•²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Philosophy, religion, and mythology › Religion and spirituality › Religious biographies › Jewish, Islamic, and Dharmic religious leaders › Islamic religious leaders and scholars › Sunni imams and classical Islamic scholars › Hadith scholars and traditionists › Egyptian traditionists

Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026

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