al-Asami wa al-Kuna - al-Imam Ahmad
- Author died
- 241 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat Dar al-Aqsa
al-Asami wa al-Kuna (The Proper Names and Agnomens) is an early biographical reference work on hadith narrators by the traditionist and jurist Ahmad ibn Hanbal (164–241 AH / 780–855 CE) . The book clarifies the identities of transmitters by resolving the proper personal names of those primarily known by their agnomens (kunyas) and establishing the agnomens of those known by their given names .
Scope and Method
The treatise forms part of the early third-century AH literature dedicated to narrator identification (ilm al-rijal), alongside corresponding compilations on names and kunyas authored by contemporaries such as Ali ibn al-Madini (d. 234 AH), Yahya ibn Ma'in (d. 233 AH), Abu Bakr ibn Abi Shaybah (d. 235 AH), and Khalifa ibn Khayyat (d. 240 AH) .
The entries address Companions, Successors, and subsequent traditionists, including female figures such as Umm Khalid Amat bint Khalid ibn Sa'id . Ahmad ibn Hanbal provides direct identifications as well as reports transmitted with chains of narration from his teachers—such as Abu Ubaydah al-Haddad Abd al-Wahid ibn Wasil al-Basri, Abd al-Razzaq, Abu al-Mughirah, and Waki' . When multiple historical opinions existed concerning a narrator's given name or pre-Islamic name, he recorded the variant transmissions, such as the differing accounts regarding the given names of Abu Hurayrah, Abu Dharr al-Ghifari, and Abd al-Rahman ibn Awf in the pre-Islamic period .
Transmission and Publication
The work has reached posterity primarily through the transmission (riwayah) of Ahmad ibn Hanbal's eldest son, Salih ibn Ahmad (203–266 AH) . It was published in a critical edition prepared by Abdullah ibn Yusuf al-Juday' and printed by Maktabat Dar al-Aqsa in Kuwait (1406 AH / 1985–1986 CE) .
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