al-Husayn ibn Bukayr al-Sayrafi
- Died
- 388 AH
- Born in
- -
al-Husayn ibn Bukayr al-Sayrafi (c. 327–388 AH / 938–998 CE) was a Baghdadi hadith scholar and preserver (hafiz) known for his hadith compilations, including a monograph on the virtues of naming children after the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ .
Lineage and Education
His full name was Abu Abd Allah al-Husayn ibn Ahmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Bukayr al-Baghdadi al-Sayrafi . He studied hadith under several prominent scholars of Baghdad and beyond, including Ibn al-Bakhtari, Isma'il al-Saffar, Uthman ibn al-Sammak, and Abu Bakr al-Najjar . He also heard hadith from Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Siddiq al-Isbahani in Baghdad and from Abu al-Abbas Ahmad ibn Muhammad al-Sumaysati in Balis .
Scholarly Standing and Transmission
A number of prominent contemporaries and later scholars transmitted from him. His students included Abu al-Ala' al-Wasiti, Ubayd Allah al-Azhari, Abu al-Qasim al-Tanukhi, Abu al-Husayn ibn al-Muhtadi bi-Llah, and Ibn Shahin, who was also among his teachers . Leading scholars such as al-Daraqutni and Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Warraq wrote down narrations from him, and he authored a collection of hadith inquiries addressed to al-Daraqutni (Su'alat Abi Abd Allah ibn Bukayr li-l-Imam al-Daraqutni) .
Al-Azhari praised Ibn Bukayr's memory, recounting that he would test him with written texts by reciting a matn for Ibn Bukayr to supply the complete isnad from memory, or reciting an isnad for him to provide the matn, which he performed flawlessly on repeated occasions . Al-Azhari regarded him as trustworthy (thiqa) and attributed criticisms against him to envy . Conversely, the critic Ibn Abi al-Fawaris voiced sharp censure against him, asserting that he was careless in transmission, interpolated material into the original manuscripts of teachers, linked disconnected chains (maqati'), and inserted names into chains of transmission .
Death
Ibn Bukayr died in Rabi' al-Thani 388 AH (998 CE) at the age of sixty-one, though an alternative report places his death in 383 AH . His son Abu Talib Muhammad reported that he lived to the age of sixty-three .
Answer updated
List of Works
Fada'il al-Tasmiya bi-Ahmad wa Muhammad (The Virtues of Naming [Children] Ahmad and Muhammad) is a hadith treatise concerning the virtues and blessings associated with giving children the names of the Prophet Muhammad. Compiled as a concise monograph to assemble transmitted reports commanding or encouraging the use of the names Muhammad or Ahmad to seek their blessings, the work records narrations furnished with full chains of transmission attributed to the Prophet, the Companions, and early figures.