al-Daraqutni
- Died
- 385 AH
- Born in
- Baghdad
Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni (306–385 AH / 918–995 CE) was a Baghdad-based hadith master, Shafi'i jurist, and critic renowned for his defect-analysis in prophetic traditions and his legal hadith collection Sunan al-Daraqutni .
Early life and education
His full name was Ali ibn Umar ibn Ahmad ibn Mahdi ibn Mas'ud ibn al-Nu'man ibn Dinar ibn 'Abd Allah . He was born in the Dar al-Qutn quarter of western Baghdad, from which his nisba derives, in 306 AH (918 CE), though another report places his birth in 305 AH (917 CE) . He noted that his birth coincided with the death year of the jurist Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Surayj .
Al-Daraqutni began recording hadith in 315 AH during his childhood . In Baghdad, he attended the lectures of senior scholars, studying hadith under Abu al-Qasim al-Baghawi, Yahya ibn Muhammad ibn Sa'id, Abu Bakr ibn Abi Dawud, and Isma'il al-Saffar . He studied Shafi'i jurisprudence under Abu Sa'id al-Istakhri—or according to another report, under one of al-Istakhri's students—and took Quranic recitation from Abu Bakr ibn Mujahid and Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Naqqash .
Travels and scholarly career
Within Iraq, al-Daraqutni journeyed to Basra, Kufa, and Wasit to hear regional narrators . In his mature years, he traveled west to the Levant and Egypt, and performed the pilgrimage to Mecca . During his stay in Egypt, he assisted the Ikhshidid vizier Abu al-Fadl Ja'far ibn al-Fadl (known as Ibn Hinzaba) in compiling his Musnad, receiving substantial financial patronage from him before returning to Baghdad .
Towards the end of his life in Baghdad, al-Daraqutni presided over teaching sessions in Quranic recitation and hadith transmission . A vast cohort of scholars studied under him, including al-Hakim al-Nisaburi, Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id, Abu Hamid al-Isfarayini, Abu Nu'aym al-Isfahani, Abu Bakr al-Barqani, and Abu al-Tayyib al-Tabari .
Scholarly standing and reception
Al-Daraqutni was widely recognized as the foremost hadith authority and critic of his generation . Al-Hakim al-Nisaburi described him as singular in his era for memorization, comprehension, and scrupulous piety, as well as an authority in Quranic recitation and Arabic grammar . Abd al-Ghani ibn Sa'id stated that the three finest critics of prophetic traditions across history were Ali ibn al-Madini in his time, Musa ibn Harun in his time, and al-Daraqutni in his own time . His disciple Abu Bakr al-Barqani recorded that al-Daraqutni dictated his extensive critical reference work al-Ilal entirely from memory . Beyond hadith, he resolved ambiguities in transmitter names in his biographical work al-Mu'talif wa-al-Mukhtalif and was extensively read in classical Arabic poetry . Because he had memorized the poetic divan of al-Sayyid al-Himyari, some attributed Shi'i leanings to him .
In 376 AH, the chief judge Ibn Ma'ruf accepted al-Daraqutni's formal legal testimony (shahada) in court, an event that caused al-Daraqutni to express rueful irony, remarking that his solitary word had once been accepted regarding the statements of the Prophet ﷺ, whereas in legal matters his testimony was now accepted only when paired with another witness .
Death
Al-Daraqutni died in Baghdad on Wednesday, 8 Dhu al-Qa'dah 385 AH (4 December 995 CE), at the age of approximately eighty . He was buried in the Bab al-Dayr cemetery near the tomb of Ma'ruf al-Karkhi, and his funeral prayer was led by Abu Hamid al-Isfarayini .
Answer updated
List of Works
Ru'yat Allah (The Vision of God) is a specialized hadith compendium devoted to assembling scriptural proofs from the Quran and prophetic traditions regarding the believers' vision of God in the Hereafter and related matters of the afterlife.
Al-Ilal al-Warida fi al-Ahadith al-Nabawiyya (commonly known as Ilal al-Daraqutni) is an encyclopedic work dedicated to identifying and analyzing hidden defects in prophetic traditions.
Sualat al-Hakim li al-Daraqutni (Questions of al-Hakim to al-Daraqutni) is a specialized hadith work in narrator criticism (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) documenting inquiries regarding the reliability status of various transmitters and defect analysis (ilal).
al-Khamis min al-Fawaid al-Muntaqat al-Hisan (The Fifth Part of Selected Fine Benefits) is a hadith compilation selected from the transmissions of Abu Muhammad Ubayd Allah ibn Ahmad ibn Ma'ruf al-Baghdadi, containing prophetic hadiths as well as non-prophetic reports.
Dhikr Asma al-Tabi'in wa-man ba'dahum mimman sahhat riwayatuhu 'an al-thiqat 'inda al-Bukhari wa-Muslim is a biographical treatise on hadith transmitters. It enumerates narrators from the generation of the Successors down to later teachers whose narrations from trustworthy transmitters are deemed authentic according to al-Bukhari and Muslim.
al-Thalith wa al-Thamanun min al-Fawaid al-Afrad is an individual hadith part (juzʾ) dedicated to unique and singular narrations. It forms the eighty-third installment of a larger compilation of one hundred parts known as al-Afrad or Kitab al-Afrad wa-al-Gharaʾib min Hadith Rasul Allah.
Al-Ilzamat wa al-Tatabbu is a hadith critical work that analyzes the contents and transmission criteria of Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. The work brings together two complementary treatises: al-Ilzamat, which documents sound narrations meeting the transmission standards of one or both compilers that were omitted from their collections, and al-Tatabbu, a critical survey tracking and examining hadiths in the two works judged to contain subtle hidden defects.
al-Ikhwa wa al-Akhawat is a specialized hadith biographical work dedicated to identifying siblings among hadith transmitters and historical figures. Its surviving portion documents sibling groups among the male and female Companions of the Prophet, helping distinguish unrelated transmitters with shared patronymics and preventing narrations by lesser-known siblings from being misidentified as scribal errors.
al-Ahadith allati khulif fiha Malik ibn Anas is a specialized work of hadith criticism (ʹilal). It examines instances where Malik ibn Anas diverged from other narrators in his transmissions from shared teachers, as well as cases where he related a hadith in one form within al-Muwatta' and in another form outside it.
Ta'liqat al-Daraqutni 'ala al-Majruhin li-Ibn Hibban is a compilation of hadith narrator criticism. It gathers concise marginal notes and critical rectifications evaluating impugned transmitters recorded in Ibn Hibban's biographical dictionary of weak narrators, Kitab al-Majruhin.
Kitab al-Nuzul (The Book of Descent), also referred to as Ahadith al-Nuzul, is a monograph of prophetic traditions dedicated to gathering the transmission paths and narrations regarding the divine descent (nuzul).
Ahadith al-Muwatta wa Dhikr Ittifaq al-Ruwat an Malik wa Ikhtilafihim (Hadiths of al-Muwatta and Mention of the Agreement and Disagreement of Transmitters from Malik) is a specialized hadith work that examines the textual and isnad discrepancies among the various transmissions of Malik ibn Anas's al-Muwatta.
Sunan al-Daraqutni is a specialized compilation of legal hadiths (ahadith al-ahkam). Conceived with a strong emphasis on hadith criticism and defect identification ('ilal), it gathers rare and obscure legal traditions, incorporating sound, fair, weak, uncorroborated, and fabricated narrations alongside non-prophetic reports to clarify transmitter standing and expose hidden defects.
Fada'il al-Sahaba (The Merits of the Companions), also known as Fada'il al-Sahaba wa-Manaqibuhum wa-Qawl Ba'dihim fi Ba'd, is a hadith work compiling transmitted reports on the virtues of the Prophet's companions and their mutual esteem with the Prophet's household (Ahl al-Bayt).
al-Du'afa' wa al-Matrukun (The Weak and Abandoned Narrators) is a concise biographical dictionary in the field of hadith transmitter criticism (al-jarh wa al-ta'dil), arranged in alphabetical order and focusing on narrators deemed weak, unreliable, or worthy of abandonment.
al-Mu'talif wa-al-Mukhtalif is a specialized biographical and onomastic reference work dedicated to resolving ambiguous narrator names, patronymics, and lineages. It addresses names, lineages, and titles sharing identical or similar written forms in Arabic script but differing in vocalization and pronunciation, serving as an expansive register to identify easily confusable hadith narrators correctly.
al-Afrad is a specialized hadith collection consisting of one hundred fascicles that examines solitary narrations and rare transmissions. It documents reports exhibiting isolation at various points in their transmission chains, assessing narrational discrepancies and hidden defects while organizing traditions around the narrations of Companions.
Arbaun Hadithan min Musnad Burayd is a specialized hadith monograph belonging to the forty-hadith and topical monograph genres. The collection brings together forty narrations transmitted through a single familial chain running from Burayd ibn 'Abd Allah ibn Abi Burdah from his grandfather Abu Burdah from the Companion Abu Musa al-Ash'ari, spanning diverse legal and theological subjects.
al-Sifat is a theological hadith treatise that gathers prophetic narrations and early reports concerning the divine attributes. The concise work presents texts with their chains of transmission, sequentially clustering traditions around specific attributes without thematic chapter headings, theological interpretations, or authenticity evaluations.
Asma al-Sahaba allati ittafaqa fiha al-Bukhari wa-Muslim wa-ma infarada bihi kull wahid is a specialized hadith-narrator treatise that surveys and categorizes male and female Companions whose narrations appear in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim. It classifies these transmitters into three divisions: those jointly included by both authorities, those cited exclusively by al-Bukhari, and those cited exclusively by Muslim.