al-Hasan ibn Khalaf ibn Shadhan

Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Khalaf ibn Shadhan (d. 246 AH / 860–861 CE) was a hadith narrator from Wasit who settled and transmitted traditions in Baghdad Tahdhib al-Tahdhib.

Lineage and identity

He was Abu Ali al-Hasan ibn Khalaf ibn Shadhan ibn Ziyad al-Wasiti al-Bazzaz Tahdhib al-Tahdhib. In biographical sources, he is frequently referred to by attribution to his grandfather as al-Hasan ibn Shadhan, while Aslam ibn Sahl in Tarikh Wasit, along with Ibn Mandah and al-Kalabadhi, recorded his genealogy without mentioning Shadhan, naming him al-Hasan ibn Khalaf ibn Ziyad Tahdhib al-Tahdhib. Later scholars noted that Shadhan was probably the nickname of his father Khalaf Tahdhib al-Tahdhib.

Hadith transmission

He studied and transmitted hadith from several prominent authorities of his era, including Ishaq ibn Yusuf al-Azraq, Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan, Yazid ibn Harun, Harami ibn Umara, Abu Usama, and Muhammad ibn Abi Adi Tahdhib al-Tahdhib+1.

A number of notable scholars narrated traditions from him, among them al-Bukhari, who recorded a single hadith from him in his Sahih—though the author of al-Zahrah counted four—as well as Baqi ibn Makhlad, Abu Hatim al-Razi, Abu Bakr al-Bazzar, Ibn Abi al-Dunya, Abu Aruba, Ibn Sa'id, Mutayyin, al-Bujayri, and the brothers al-Husayn and al-Qasim ibn Isma'il al-Mahamili Tahdhib al-Tahdhib+1.

Scholarly standing and death

Evaluations of his reliability among biographical critics were varied:

• Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi and Maslama ibn al-Qasim al-Qurtubi explicitly declared him trustworthy (thiqah) Tahdhib al-Tahdhib+1.
• Abu Hatim al-Razi designated him as a shaykh Tahdhib al-Tahdhib.
• Ibn Hibban listed him in his biographical compilation of trustworthy transmitters, al-Thiqat, in two separate entries (once as al-Hasan ibn Shadhan and once as al-Hasan ibn Khalaf) and included his narration in his Sahih Tahdhib al-Tahdhib+1.
• In al-Tarikh al-Awsat, al-Bukhari remarked under the entry for al-Hasan ibn Shadhan al-Wasiti that "they speak about him" (yatakallamuna fih), a note also reported by Ishaq al-Qarrab, and Ibn al-Jarud listed him among the weak transmitters Tahdhib al-Tahdhib+1.
• Ibn Adi stated that his narrations are tolerable (yuhtamal), not objectionable (laysa bi-l-munkar), and that he knew of no denounced report transmitted by him al-Jami li-Kutub al-Duafa…+1.

He died in Baghdad in 246 AH, as recorded by Muhammad ibn Ishaq al-Sarraj and al-Bukhari Tahdhib al-Tahdhib+1.