The Imam who renewed the religion, the learned master Majd al-Dī n
ibn Muh ammad ibn Mans u r al-Muʾayyidī (Peace be Upon Him), says
in his book Lawamiʿ al-Anwar:
“I say—praising Allah as befits His majesty, and sending prayers and
peace upon His Messenger Muh ammad and his family:
The one in need of Allah—Majd al-Dī n ibn Muh ammad (may Allah
pardon them both and forgive them and the believers)—transmits my
compilations of the Supreme Imam, the wali son of a wali, Zayd ibn ʿAlī
ibn al-H usayn ibn ʿAlī (upon them be the prayers of the Most High
King)—his h adī th, jurisprudence, and all his works and epistles—
through all the aforementioned chains to the Imam al-Mans u r bi-lla h
al-Qa sim ibn Muh ammad. I raise these from my shaykh and father,
the learned wali Muh ammad ibn Mans u r ibn Ah mad al-Muʾayyidī
(may Allah be pleased with them)—by audition in the juristic
compilation and others, and by a general authorization in all— from
his shaykh, the Commander of the Faithful, al-Mahdī li-Dī n Alla h Rabb
al-ʿA lamī n Muh ammad ibn al-Qa sim al-H u thī ; from his shaykh, the
Commander of the Faithful, al-Mans u r bi-lla h Muh ammad ibn
ʿAbdulla h al-Wazī r; and from his shaykh, the noble Imam Muh
ammad ibn Muh ammad ibn ʿAbdulla h al-Kabsī (may Allah be pleased
with them).
As for the Imam al-Mans u r bi-lla h Muh ammad ibn ʿAbdulla h, he
transmits that and other material from his three shaykhs:
The noble Imam, the full moon of the noble family, Yah ya ibn ʿAbdulla
h ibn ʿUthma n al-Wazī r; The noble Imam, the preserver of Yemen, the
master of Banu al-H asan, Ah mad ibn Zayd al-Kabsī ; And the noble
Imam, the preserver of the sciences of the noble progeny, the author of
Anwar al-Tamam, Ah mad ibn Yu suf Zaba rah al-H asanī (may Allah be
pleased with them).
All three transmit that and other material from the noble Imam al-H
usayn ibn Yu suf Zaba rah al-H asanī ; from his father, the noble Imam
Yu suf ibn al-H usayn; from his father, the noble Imam, the preserver of
the sciences of Islam, al-H usayn ibn Ah mad; from the noble Imam ʿA
mir ibn ʿAbdulla h ibn ʿA mir al-Shahī d; from the Imam al-Muʾayyad
bi-lla h Muh ammad ibn al-Qa sim; from his father, the Imam who
renewed the religion, al-Mans u r bi-lla h al-Qa sim ibn Muh ammad.
(H) As for the noble Imam Muh ammad ibn Muh ammad al-Kabsī —
and likewise the noble Imam Ah mad ibn Zayd al-Kabsī —both
transmit that and other material from the noble Imam, the shining star
of the eminent progeny, Muh ammad ibn ʿAbd al-Rabb ibn al-Imam
(may Allah be pleased with them); from his uncle, the learned master
Isma ʿī l ibn Muh ammad; from his father, the learned master Muh
ammad ibn Zayd; from his father, the learned master Zayd ibn al-
Imam; from his father, the Imam al-Mutawakkil ʿala Alla h Isma ʿī l;
from his father, the Imam al-Mans u r bi-lla h al-Qa sim ibn Muh
ammad.
He transmits that and other material from his noble shaykhs, the
Imams: Amī r al-Dī n ibn ʿAbdulla h al-Hadawī al-H u thī ; Ibra hī m ibn
al-Mahdī al-Qa simī al-Jah a fī ; and the noble Imam S ala h ibn Ah mad
ibn ʿAbdulla h al-Wazī r, who passed away in the year one thousand
and twenty-four.
The scholars said concerning him: He was the best of the people of his
time, the most scrupulous among them, the most eloquent among
them—one who proclaimed the truth openly, not deterred by blame in
the cause of Allah.
All three transmit from their shaykh, the noble Imam, the Sun of Islam,
Ah mad ibn ʿAbdulla h al-Wazī r; from the Imam, the Commander of
the Faithful, al-Mutawakkil ʿala Alla h Yah ya Sharaf al-Dī n.
He transmits that and other material from the most noble Imam, the
warrior striving in the path of Allah, al-Mans u r bi-lla h Muh ammad
ibn ʿAlī al-Sara jī ; from his shaykh, the trusted Imam, the Commander
of the Faithful, al-Ha dī ila al-H aqq Abu al-H asan ʿIzz al-Dī n ibn al-H
asan, son of the Imam al-Ha dī li-Dī n Alla h ʿAlī ibn al-Muʾayyad; from
his shaykh, the Imam al-Mutawakkil ʿala Alla h, the Commander of the
Faithful al-Mut ahhar ibn Muh ammad ibn Sulayma n al-H amzī ; from
his shaykh, the Imam, the Commander of the Faithful, al-Mahdī li-Dī n
Alla h Ah mad ibn Yah ya ibn al-Murtad a (Peace be Upon Him); from
his brother, the noble Imam al-Ha dī ibn Yah ya , who passed away in
the year seven hundred and eighty-five; and the jurist, the learned
Muh ammad ibn Yah ya al-Madhah jī ; from the jurist, the learned
master, ʿIlm al-Dī n—the authority in transmitted and rational
sciences—al-Qa sim; from his father, the learned master, the foremost
of the eminent scholars of the age, Ah mad, who passed away in the
year seven hundred and one; from his father, the Imam of the eminent
scholars, the blessed martyr, H umayd ibn Ah mad al-Mah allī al-
Hamda nī al-Wa diʿī (may Allah be pleased with them); from the Imam,
the proof, the Commander of the Faithful, the renewer of the religion,
al-Mans u r bi-lla h Rabb al-ʿA lamī n, ʿAbdulla h ibn H amzah.
(H) And I transmit what has preceded from the compilation and others
through the aforementioned chain, uninterrupted up to the Imam al-
Mutawakkil ʿala Alla h, Yah ya Sharaf al-Dī n (Peace be Upon Him).
He transmits that, and other material, through his reading of the noble
compilation to his shaykh, the noble Imam, the h adī th master of
Yemen, the author of al-Hidayah and al-Fusul, S a rim al-Dī n Ibra hī m
ibn Muh ammad ibn ʿAbdulla h al-Wazī r; through his reading to the
noble Imam, the shaykh of the progeny (al-ʿItrah), its h adī th master
and exegete, and the preserver of its sciences, S ala h al-Dī n Abu al-ʿAt
a ya ʿAbdulla h ibn Yah ya ; through his reading to his father, the noble
Imam, the devout worshipper and ascetic, the author of Silat al-
Ikhwan, Yah ya ibn the noble Imam, the standard-bearer of the
eminent scholars, al-Mahdī ibn al-Qa sim al-H usaynī —Zaydī by
lineage and doctrine; through his reading to the noble Imam, the one
who trusted in the Lord of all creation, al-Mut ahhar; through his
reading to his father, the Imam al-Mahdī li-Dī n Alla h, the Commander of the Faithful Muh
ammad; through his reading to his father, the Imam shaded by the
clouds, al-Mutawakkil ʿala Alla h, the Commander of the Faithful al-
Mut ahhar ibn Yah ya (Peace be Upon Him); through his reading to the
learned shaykh, the one devoted to scholarly review, Taqī al-Dī n Muh
ammad ibn Ah mad ibn Abī al-Rija l (may Allah be pleased with him);
through his reading to the martyred Imam, al-Mahdī li-Dī n Alla h, the
Commander of the Faithful Ah mad ibn al-H usayn (Peace be Upon
Him); through his reading to the shaykh of the Shī ʿah and the
preserver of the Sharī ʿah, the learned master Ah mad ibn Muh ammad
ibn al-Qa sim al-Akwaʿ, known as Shuʿlah (may Allah be pleased with
them); from the Imam al-Mans u r bi-lla h ʿAbdulla h ibn H amzah
(Peace be Upon Him).
He then carried the chain of transmission to the Supreme Imam Zayd
ibn ʿAlī (Peace be Upon Them Both), together with biographies of
some of the transmitters in the chain.
[See Lawamiʿ al-Anwar fī Jawamiʿ al-ʿUlum wa-al-Athar by the Imam
who renewed the religion, Majd al-Dī n ibn Muh ammad ibn Mans u r
al-Muʾayyidī (Peace be Upon Him).