محمد محفوظ الترمسي

Mahfuz al-Tarmasi (RH)

Muhammad Mahfuz al-Tarmasi

Also known as: Mahfudz Tremas, Mahfudz at-Tarmasi, Mahfuzh al-Tarmasi, al-Tirmisi

1285–1338 AH · 1868–1920 CE

Hadith Shafi'i Fiqh

Javanese hadith master who taught in Makkah, teacher of Hasyim Asy'ari and author of Manhaj Dhawi al-Nazar.

Mahfuz al-Tarmasi was born in 1868 in Tremas, near Pacitan in east Java, where his family ran a pesantren. His father 'Abd Allah took him to Makkah as a boy, and he studied in Java with his family and with Kiai Saleh Darat of Semarang before settling in Makkah. There he studied with the scholars of the Haram, among them Sayyid Abu Bakr Shatta, and gathered many chains of transmission, which he recorded in his Kifayat al-Mustafid.

He taught in the Masjid al-Haram for about forty years and was known above all as a teacher of hadith, whose chains for Sahih al-Bukhari were sought by students from across the Malay world. Among them were Hasyim Asy'ari, Wahab Chasbullah and Bisri Syansuri, through whom his teaching shaped the pesantren of Java. His Manhaj Dhawi al-Nazar, a commentary on al-Suyuti's verse primer of hadith terminology, is still studied, and his gloss on Shafi'i fiqh runs to several volumes. He died in Makkah in 1920 and was buried at al-Ma'la.

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