al-Duafa wa al-Matrukun li al-Daraqutni
- Author died
- 385 AH
- Editions
- Majallat al-Jāmi‘ah al-Islāmīyah bi-al-Madīnah al-Munawwarah
al-Du‘afa’ wa al-Matrukun (The Weak and Abandoned Narrators) is a concise biographical dictionary in the field of hadith transmitter criticism (al-jarh wa al-ta‘dil), compiled from the critical evaluations of the Baghdadi hadith master al-Daraqutni (d. 385 AH / 995 CE) .
Composition and Transmission
The compilation of the work emerged from extended scholarly discussions held between al-Daraqutni and his students Abu Bakr al-Barqani and Abu Mansur Ibrahim ibn al-Husayn ibn Hamkan regarding discarded hadith transmitters (al-matrukun) . As al-Barqani records in the work's opening, the three settled upon abandoning the transmission of those specific individuals whom al-Barqani subsequently arranged and recorded in alphabetical order .
The treatise was transmitted directly from al-Daraqutni by Abu Muhammad al-Hasan ibn Ali ibn Muhammad al-Jawhari . From al-Jawhari, it was transmitted via authorization (ijaza) by Abu Mansur Muhammad ibn Abd al-Malik ibn Khayrun, passing through subsequent transmitters including Umm Abd al-Karim Fatima bint Abi al-Hasan Sa‘d al-Khayr al-Ansariyya, from whom Abu Abd Allah Muhammad ibn Isma‘il al-Maqdisi heard the text for Abd al-Hafiz ibn Abd al-Mun‘im al-Kawri .
Contents and Methodology
Comprising thirteen folios in manuscript form along with its transmission certificates (sama‘at), the book is organized alphabetically according to the Arabic alphabet (huruf al-mu‘jam) . The text contains hundreds of entries—reaching over six hundred numbered entries in standard editions—focusing on transmitters deemed weak, unreliable, or worthy of abandonment .
Al-Barqani generally lists the names sequentially with brief evaluative descriptions, often summarizing al-Daraqutni's verdicts using succinct terminology such as matruk (abandoned), kadhdhab (liar), or salih al-hadith (serviceable in hadith), alongside notes on key teachers and students . In certain cases, al-Daraqutni withheld judgment when he lacked direct experiential knowledge of a narrator, and his assessments reflect a balanced approach, identifying specific contexts where a narrator's reports might still be considered for corroboration .
Reception and Printed Editions
The work served as an essential primary reference for subsequent authorities in biographical evaluation, who drew heavily on al-Daraqutni's verdicts in major compendia such as al-Mizzi's Tahdhib al-Kamal, al-Dhahabi's Mizan al-I‘tidal, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Lisan al-Mizan .
The text has been published in several modern academic editions, including:
- An edition edited by Muhammad Lutfi al-Sabbagh (Beirut: al-Maktab al-Islami, 1400 AH) .
- An edition edited by Muwaffaq ibn Abd Allah ibn Abd al-Qadir (Riyadh: Maktabat al-Ma‘arif, 1404 AH / 1984 CE) .
- An edition published within a collection of texts on weak narrators edited by Abd al-Aziz Izz al-Din al-Sirawan (Beirut: Dar al-Qalam, 1405 AH) .
- An edition edited by Subhi al-Badri al-Samarra'i (Beirut: Mu’assasat al-Risalah, 1406 AH) .
- An academic edition edited by Abd al-Rahim Muhammad al-Qashqari published in the Journal of the Islamic University of Medina .
Answer updated