# Makram ibn Muhammad ibn Hamza
**Makram ibn Muhammad ibn Hamza** (مكرم بن محمد بن حمزة بن محمد بن أحمد القرشي) was a Sunni hadith transmitter and merchant of Damascus who lived from 548 AH (1153 CE) to 635 AH (1237 CE), known in the sources as Abu al-Mufaddal Najm al-Din al-Qurashi al-Dimashqi al-Tajir al-Saffar, son of the hadith scholar Abu Ya'la. He was born in Rajab 548 AH (1153 CE) and died in Damascus on 2 Rajab 635 AH (1237 CE) at the age of 87.[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) He appears in hadith chains not as an author or a famous jurist but as a musnid, a long-lived link through whom later Damascene scholars received material from an earlier generation.[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Identity | Abu al-Mufaddal Najm al-Din al-Qurashi al-Dimashqi al-Tajir al-Saffar, son of the hadith imam Abu Abdallah Ibn Abi Ya'la[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) |
| Dates | Born Rajab 548 AH (1153 CE); died 2 Rajab 635 AH (1237 CE) in Damascus, aged 87[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) |
| Cities of narration | Egypt, Aleppo, Baghdad, and Damascus[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) • [3](https://sunnah.com/narrator/62632) |
| Teachers | Hassan ibn Tamim al-Zayyat, Hamza ibn al-Hububi, Hamza ibn Karus, al-Sa'in ibn Asakir, and others[4](https://www.islamarchive.cc/a3lam/160440) |
| Students | More than twenty named narrators, including al-Birzali, Ibn Khalil, al-Diya, al-Mundhiri, Ibn al-Adim, and al-Yunini[4](https://www.islamarchive.cc/a3lam/160440) |
| Grading | Al-Dhahabi: "a trustworthy shaykh, a musnid, long-lived"; sunnah.com summary: "Truthful, Good Hadith" (saduq hasan al-hadith)[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563) • [3](https://sunnah.com/narrator/62632) |
| Burial | Beside his father in the Bab al-Saghir cemetery, Damascus[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) |
## Name, lineage, and the Qurashi nisba
The biographical notices give a fuller genealogy than the headline name suggests. Ibn al-Damyati's notice records him as Mukram ibn Muhammad ibn Hamza ibn Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Qurashi ibn Salama ibn Abi Jamil ibn Abi al-Saqr, with the epithets al-Shaykh al-Amin (the trustworthy shaykh), al-Musnid (one with many chains), and al-Mu'ammar (the long-lived).[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563) Sunnah.com's narrator index gives the same lineage, ending at ibn Salama ibn Abi Jamil, and lists his byname as Ibn Abi al-Sqr.[3](https://sunnah.com/narrator/62632)
The nisba al-Qurashi is recorded in every source, alongside al-Dimashqi, al-Tajir (the merchant), and al-Saffar.[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) What the sources do establish is his family's standing in hadith: al-Dhahabi styles his father "the imam, the just hadith scholar" (الإمام المحدث العدل) Abu Abdallah Ibn Abi Ya'la, and Ibn al-Hajib says Makram was "from a house of hadith and probity" (من بيت حديث وعدالة).[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) • [2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563)
## Life and historical setting
Makram's life spans the late Ayyubid period, when Aleppo was a major center for the transmission of Sunni hadith and scholars traveled between Aleppo, Damascus, Baghdad, and Egypt to study texts in person with teachers holding authentic isnads.[5](https://real.mtak.hu/226681/1/Koen-Janssen-2025.pdf) His own career involved travel among several of these cities. Al-Mundhiri reports that he frequently traveled to Egypt for trade, and the notices record that he narrated in Egypt, Aleppo, Baghdad, and Damascus; Ibn al-Damyati adds that he came to Baghdad and dictated hadith there.[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797) • [2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563) The combination of commerce and hadith transmission was not unusual: travel in search of knowledge and the search for patrons were major motivations for scholarly movement in this period.[5](https://real.mtak.hu/226681/1/Koen-Janssen-2025.pdf)
He died on 2 Rajab 635 AH and was buried next to his father in the cemetery of Bab al-Saghir in Damascus.[1](https://tarajm.com/people/71797)
## In the chains: transmission and grading
**His teachers.** [Al-Dhahabi](https://www.edgepedia.org/al-dhahabi) lists those he transmitted from: Hassan ibn Tamim al-Zayyat, Hamza ibn al-Hububi, Hamza ibn Karus, Abu al-Muzaffar al-Falaki, Ali ibn Ahmad ibn Muqatil, Abd al-Rahman ibn Abi al-Hasan al-Darani, al-Sa'in ([Ibn Asakir](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-asakir)'s associate), and Ali ibn Ahmad al-Harastani.[4](https://www.islamarchive.cc/a3lam/160440) One isnad quoted in the entry, from Ibn Abi Thabit, reads "Makram informed us by my reading, Abu Ya'la informed us," showing him transmitting from his own father by qira'a.[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563)
**His students.** More than twenty narrators are named as taking from him, among them al-Birzali, Ibn Khalil, al-Diya, al-Mundhiri, [Ibn al-Adim](https://www.edgepedia.org/ibn-al-adim), al-Yunini, Ibn Mashraf, Sunqur al-Halabi, and Ayyub ibn al-Nahhas.[4](https://www.islamarchive.cc/a3lam/160440) Al-Dhahabi singles out the hadith masters (al-huffaz) among them: Ibn Khalil, al-Diya, al-Birzali, and Abu al-Muzaffar al-Nabulsi.[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563)
**The critics' grades.** The assessments differ in wording and in level. Al-Dhahabi calls him "a trustworthy shaykh, a musnid, long-lived" (شيخ أمين مسند معمر) and writes that Makram was "among the trustworthy musnids of Damascus" (من شيوخ دمشق المسندين الثقات).[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563) Sunnah.com's summary grade, by contrast, is "Truthful, Good Hadith" (صدوق حسن الحديث), which on Ibn Hajar's scale sits a notch below thiqa.[3](https://sunnah.com/narrator/62632) Ibn al-Damyati's notice says he was "of sound audition" (صحيح السماع) but "difficult in narration" (عسرا في الرواية).[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563)
## By the numbers
The notices measure how minor a "minor transmitter" he is. His documentation rests on one main entry in al-Dhahabi's Siyar plus a parallel notice by Ibn al-Damyati.[2](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563) Against that, over twenty named students took from him.[4](https://www.islamarchive.cc/a3lam/160440) The scale of the literature that now indexes such figures is large: the Hadithtransmitters platform hosts biographical records for 100,915 transmitters,[6](https://arxiv.org/html/2607.05424v1) Hadith-Viz cross-references 79 classical rijal works totalling 319,657 entries,[7](http://hadith-viz.com/sources.html) and the qataruts knowledge graph holds 715,790 hadith from 425 collections with 49,819 narrator biographies.[8](https://github.com/qataruts/hadith) A figure documented by two classical notices is one among tens of thousands of comparable entries.
## Recent developments
A reader can now verify a narrator like Makram without handling manuscripts. Hadith-Viz verifies narrators through name analysis, teacher and student relationships, death-year consistency, and cross-referencing against the 319,657 rijal entries, of which 307,125 (96.08%) carry the printed page they came from, so a statement can be checked in the book itself; the corpus supplies 71,887 verdict phrases, 58,415 death years, 437,831 statements of the critics, and 660,101 teacher-student links.[7](http://hadith-viz.com/sources.html) The qataruts project makes 577,024 fully-linked isnad chains and 127,863 narrator-criticism statements by 1,015 critics queryable in an Arabic-first web application.[8](https://github.com/qataruts/hadith) Sanadset 650K provides 650,986 structured hadith records from 926 books with XML-tagged chains, yielding 185,216 unique narrator name variants,[6](https://arxiv.org/html/2607.05424v1) and Multi-IsnadSet (2024) represents [Sahih Muslim](https://www.edgepedia.org/sahih-muslim)'s isnads as a graph of 2,092 narrator nodes and 77,797 sanad-hadith edges.[9](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11096860/) On the compilation side, al-Mudevvenetu'l-jam'a, a committee project led by Muhammad Taqi Osmani, has published the first six of a planned 50 volumes,[10](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/islamiilimler/article/1553181) and software such as Jami' al-Ahadith 4 indexes over 433,000 narrations searchable by narrator and century.[11](http://en.hawzahnews.com/news/372237/Qom-to-Host-Unveiling-of-Cutting-Edge-Hadith-Software-on-Prophet-s) For a transmitter documented in biographical dictionaries, these tools turn a name in a chain into a checkable record with page references.
## References
1. [مكرم بن محمد بن حمزة السفار — ترجمة من سير أعلام النبلاء للذهبي, Tarajm](https://tarajm.com/people/71797)
2. [مكرم بن محمد بن حمزة بن محمد بن أحمد القرشي — The Hadith Transmitters Encyclopedia](https://hadithtransmitters.hawramani.com/%d9%85%d9%83%d8%b1%d9%85-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%b2%d8%a9-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d9%85%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d9%85%d8%af-%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%82/?book=5563)
3. [Mukram ibn Muhammad al-Qurashi — sunnah.com narrator database](https://sunnah.com/narrator/62632)
4. [الأعلام: مكرم بن محمد بن حمزة القرشي — أرشيف الإسلام](https://www.islamarchive.cc/a3lam/160440)
5. [Koen Janssen (2025). Traveling Scholars and Their Audition Certificates: Late Ayyubid Aleppo (624–658/1227–1260) as a Center of Knowledge. Arabist 48.](https://real.mtak.hu/226681/1/Koen-Janssen-2025.pdf)
6. [Linking Hadith Narrator Identities Across Heterogeneous Arabic Biographical Databases (arXiv preprint)](https://arxiv.org/html/2607.05424v1)
7. [Sources & Data Lineage, Hadith-Viz](http://hadith-viz.com/sources.html)
8. [qataruts/hadith knowledge graph, GitHub](https://github.com/qataruts/hadith)
9. [Multi-IsnadSet (MIS) for Sahih Muslim Hadith, Data in Brief 54 (2024)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11096860/)
10. [Geçmişten Günümüze Hadisleri Bir Araya Getirme Çabaları ve el-Mudevvenetü'l-Câmi'a, DergiPark](https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/islamiilimler/article/1553181)
11. [Qom to Host Unveiling of Cutting-Edge Hadith Software, Hawzah News Agency](http://en.hawzahnews.com/news/372237/Qom-to-Host-Unveiling-of-Cutting-Edge-Hadith-Software-on-Prophet-s)
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*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 › Syrian and Palestinian traditionists*
*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license