Abu al-Maali al-Farawi
- Died
- 587 AH
- Born in
- Nishapur
Abu al-Maali al-Farawi (497–587 AH / 1104–1191 CE) was a Shafi'i hadith scholar and certified legal witness from Nishapur, recognized as the principal hadith authority (musnid) of Khurasan in his era .
Lineage and Early Life
He was Abd al-Mun'im ibn Abd Allah ibn Muhammad ibn al-Fadl ibn Ahmad al-Sa'idi al-Farawi al-Naysaburi al-Shafi'i, carrying the kunya Abu al-Maali . His nisba derives from Farawa (vocalized as both Farawah and Furawah), a border outpost and small town in the region of Khwarazm . He was born in Nishapur in Rabi' al-Awwal 497 AH into an illustrious household known for legal probity, judicial witnessing, and hadith transmission across successive generations; his father, his grandfather Abu al-Barakat, and his paternal great-grandfather Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn al-Fadl al-Farawi (known as Faqih al-Haram) were all prominent transmitters .
Education and Career
In his youth, al-Farawi studied hadith under his grandfather Abu Abd Allah al-Farawi, Abu Bakr Abd al-Ghaffar ibn Muhammad al-Shiruyi—being the last surviving narrator to transmit directly from him—as well as Abu Nasr Abd al-Rahim ibn Abd al-Karim al-Qushayri, Abu al-Fadl al-Abbas ibn Ahmad al-Shaqqani, and Zarif ibn Muhammad al-Hiri . In Nishapur, he served among the distinguished certified legal witnesses (al-shuhud al-muzakkun) .
In the latter part of his life, he journeyed to perform the pilgrimage, arriving in Baghdad in 578 AH (recorded in another report as 579 AH) and continuing on to Mecca and Medina . He held transmission sessions in Nishapur, Baghdad, and the Two Holy Sanctuaries .
Numerous scholars transmitted hadith from him, including his son Abu al-Fath Mansur ibn Abd al-Mun'im al-Farawi, Ibn al-Dubaythi, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Musa al-Hazimi, Abu al-Abbas ibn al-Bandaniji, Ahmad ibn Abd al-Wahid al-Bukhari, Mukram ibn Mas'ud, and Muhammad ibn Rawahah .
Scholarly Standing and Death
Al-Farawi was celebrated for his longevity and his possession of elevated chains of transmission (uluww al-isnad), through which narrations reached him with few intermediaries . A collection of forty narrations derived from his transmissions, known as al-Arba'un, was compiled and circulated among hadith scholars .
He died in Nishapur in late Sha'ban 587 AH at the age of ninety . With his death, the tier of elevated chains across Khurasan dropped by one level .
Answer updated
List of Works
Subaiyat Abi al-Maali al-Farawi, also titled al-Arbaun al-Subaiyyat, is a compilation of forty hadiths. The work belongs to the genre of elevated chains of transmission (uluww al-isnad), featuring seven-tier narrations (suba'iyyat) where seven intermediaries stand between the primary source and the Prophet Muhammad.