al-Warani al-Mawsili
- Died
- 622 AH
- Born in
- Mosul
al-Warani al-Mawsili (557–622 AH / 1162–1225 CE) was a Hanafi jurist and hadith scholar from Mosul, best known for his hadith treatise al-Mughni 'an al-Hifz wal-Kitab.
Early life and education
His full name was Diya' al-Din Abu Hafs Umar ibn Badr ibn Sa'id ibn Muhammad ibn Tankir (also recorded as Bankir) al-Warani al-Mawsili al-Kurdi al-Hanafi, and he was also referred to by the kunya Abu Muhammad. He was born in Mosul in Jumada al-Akhirah 557 AH, though a later biographical note records his birth in 577 AH.
Al-Warani began his scholarly activities in Mosul, serving as a teaching assistant (mu'id) at the Madrasat Bani Buldaji. In Baghdad, he studied hadith under Abu al-Faraj Ibn Kulayb, Ibn al-Sabuni, and Ibn al-Jawzi. He also heard hadith in Erbil from Ibn Tabarzadh.
Teaching and career
Al-Warani traveled to Aleppo and then to Jerusalem, where the Ayyubid ruler al-Mu'azzam Isa appointed him to transmit hadith at the madrasa he had founded there. The emir Izz al-Din Aybak likewise placed him in charge of teaching at the madrasa established for Hanafi jurists in Jerusalem, where he remained as an instructor. He later visited Aleppo again in 621 AH to transmit hadith before taking up residence in Damascus.
Among those who transmitted from him were Rashid al-Din ibn al-Attar, who met him in Jerusalem, Yusuf ibn Ahmad al-Dimashqi, who heard from him the Juz' of al-Hasan ibn Arafah in Mosul and Damascus, and Ibn al-Zahiri, who read hadith to him in Jerusalem in 611 AH.
Scholarly standing
Biographers described al-Warani as a dignified scholar of pleasant deportment who was constantly occupied with worship, writing, and hadith transmission. His scholarship concentrated on hadith criticism and compilation, producing works such as al-Jam' bayn al-Sahihayn ("The Combination of the Two Sahihs") and al-Aqidah al-Sahiha fi al-Mawdu'at al-Sariha ("Sound Doctrine Regarding Explicit Fabrications").
His best-known work, al-Mughni 'an al-Hifz wal-Kitab, sought to catalogue topical chapters in which no authentic hadith had been established. The book drew varied evaluations: al-Sakhawi observed that although al-Warani faced numerous criticisms regarding his judgments, he relied in each chapter upon earlier hadith authorities; conversely, al-Suyuti considered him outside the ranks of foremost Hadith masters (huffaz) and noted that many of his negative rulings were open to dispute.
Death
Al-Warani died in Damascus at the Nuri Hospital (al-Bimaristan al-Nuri) on the night of Friday, 28 Ramadan 622 AH. Another report transmitted by Ibn al-Najjar places his death on the night of Saturday, 29 Ramadan 622 AH, while other biographical notices mention Shawwal 623 AH.
Answer updated
List of Works
al-Mughni an al-Hifz wal-Kitab is a hadith treatise devoted to identifying topical chapters and subjects in which no authentic prophetic hadith is established. Also known by the expanded title al-Mughni 'an al-Hifz wal-Kitab bi-Qawlihim: Lam Yasihha Shay'un fi Hadha al-Bab, the work is organized without full textual reports or chains of transmission, using concise chapter headings to indicate whether narrations in a given subject are sound or flawed.