Ibn Manjuyah
- Died
- 428 AH
- Born in
- -
Abu Bakr Ibn Manjuyah (c. 347–428 AH / c. 958–1037 CE) was a Persian hadith scholar from Isfahan who settled in Nishapur, known for his biographical dictionary Rijal Sahih Muslim (Transmitters of Sahih Muslim) .
Background, Education, and Travels
His full lineage is Abu Bakr Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn Manjuyah al-Yazdi al-Asbahani al-Naysaburi, with the patronymic nisba al-Manjuyi tracing back to his ancestor Manjuyah . According to al-Haskani, he was born in 347 AH; his involvement in commerce during his youth initially delayed his collection of hadith transmissions . Al-Hakim al-Naysaburi recorded that he commenced his pursuit of hadith after 360 AH in his native region before embarking on extensive study across Khurasan and Transoxiana . He traveled to Bukhara, Samarqand, Herat, Jurjan, and Rayy, though al-Dhahabi observed that he did not reach Iraq .
His teachers included Abu Bakr al-Isma'ili, Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Ibrahim ibn al-Muqri', Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Ishaq ibn Mandah, Ismail ibn Nujayd, Ibrahim ibn Abd Allah al-Naysaburi, and Abu Muslim Abd al-Rahman ibn Shahdal .
Teaching and Transmission
After establishing residence in Nishapur, Ibn Manjuyah taught a substantial circle of disciples . Among those who transmitted from him were Abu Isma'il al-Ansari al-Harawi, Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi, Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Abu Salih al-Mu'adhdhin, Ali ibn Ahmad al-Akhram, and Abd al-Rahman ibn Muhammad ibn Mandah .
His scholarly activity centered on organizing and transmitting large hadith corpora. Abd al-Rahman ibn Mandah copied Ibn Manjuyah's Sunan, a collection patterned after the arrangement of Sunan Abi Dawud . He also compiled a mustakhraj extraction aligned with the Sahihayn of al-Bukhari and Muslim .
Scholarly Standing
Ibn Manjuyah was widely recognized by contemporaries and subsequent biographers for the breadth and retentiveness of his memory . Abu Isma'il al-Ansari described him as the greatest memorizer of hadith among mortals he had ever seen, adding: "In my travels and residence, I saw one hafiz and a half: as for the hafiz, it was Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Manjuyah, and the half hafiz was al-Jarudi" . Al-Hakim al-Naysaburi praised his discernment in assembling authenticated transmissions and biographical classifications, while scholars such as Ibn al-Salah and Ibn Nasir al-Din noted his precision, critical standing (ithbat), and religious piety .
Death
Ibn Manjuyah died in Nishapur on Thursday, 5 Muharram 428 AH (1037 CE), at the age of 81 ; an isolated report records the year of his death as 418 AH .
Answer updated
List of Works
Rijal Sahih Muslim, also referred to as Asma' rijal Sahih Muslim, is a specialized biographical dictionary dedicated to documenting the transmitters of hadith found in Muslim ibn al-Hajjaj's Sahih Muslim. The work compiles entries detailing the names, genealogies, teachers, and transmission paths of narrators whose reports appear in the collection, assisting in establishing narrator identities and distinguishing between primary transmitters and those used for corroborating chains.