al-Dalil al-Mughni li-Shuyukh al-Imam Abi al-Hasan al-Daraqutni
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- Dar al-Kiyan lil-Tiba'ah wal-Nashr wal-Tawzi'
al-Dalil al-Mughni li-Shuyukh al-Imam Abi al-Hasan al-Daraqutni (The Sufficient Guide to the Teachers of Imam Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni) is a specialized biographical dictionary (mashyakha) authored by Abu al-Tayyib Nayif ibn Salah ibn 'Ali al-Mansuri, dedicated to documenting and evaluating the direct teachers of the fourth-century hadith scholar Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni (306–385 AH).
Scope and Background
The work forms part of the author's larger series on biographical documentation of late hadith transmitters titled Taqrib Ruwat al-Sunnah bayna Yaday al-Ummah (under the section I'lam al-Thiqat bi-Tarajim al-Mashyakhat), which also includes biographical dictionaries on the teachers of al-Tabarani, al-Hakim al-Naysaburi, and al-Bayhaqi. The book addresses a notable difficulty in hadith criticism: identifying and verifying fourth-century AH transmitters, whose biographical details were often omitted or scattered across rare compendia, leading even prominent modern scholars such as Muhammad Nasir al-Din al-Albani to occasionally withhold judgment due to the lack of accessible biographical entries for figures in that generation.
Methodology and Structure
In compiling the dictionary, al-Mansuri gathered the teachers through whom al-Daraqutni narrated and constructed biographical entries for them. For each entry, the author provides:
- The subject's full name, lineage, and appellations.
- The individual's teachers and students.
- Statements of praise or criticism (al-jarh wa-al-ta'dil) from authoritative critics, where available.
- Cross-references to biographical and hadith sources, specifying instances and locations where al-Daraqutni cited the transmitter across his compilations.
The book was reviewed and supplemented with critical evaluations by Abu al-Hasan Mustafa ibn Isma'il al-Sulaymani al-Ma'ribi, who summarized and explained the reliability judgments for every teacher profiled in the book.
Reception and Publication
The work received prefaces and commendations from contemporary scholars of hadith and Islamic law, including Sa'd ibn 'Abd Allah al-Humayyid, Hasan Maqbuli al-Ahdal, and Badr ibn 'Abd Allah al-Badr, who noted its utility for researchers examining chains of transmission (isnad) from the fourth century AH and determining the authenticity of hadiths dependent on those transmitters.
The work was published in its first edition by Dar al-Kayan in Riyadh in 1428 AH (2007 CE).
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