al-Inaba ila Marifat al-Mukhtalaf Fihim min al-Sahaba
- Author died
- 762 AH
- Editions
- Maktabat al-Rushd lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzīʿ
al-Inaba ila Ma'rifat al-Mukhtalaf Fihim min al-Sahaba (Turning Toward Knowing Those Among the Companions Whose Status Is Disputed) is a biographical dictionary by the hadith scholar and historian Ala al-Din Mughaltay (d. 762 AH / 1361 CE), dedicated to identifying figures whose status as Companions of the Prophet Muhammad is subject to scholarly disagreement .
Purpose and Scope
The work focuses on transmitters and early figures whose Companionship (suhba) is debated among hadith critics and biographers . Establishing or denying Companionship is a foundational discipline within hadith criticism, as resolving a narrator's generation determines whether chains of transmission are continuous or disconnected (mursal), which directly impacts the acceptance or rejection of their reports .
Earlier specialized writing on this topic includes the comprehensive work Uqlat al-Ajlan by al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Saghani (d. 650 AH) and his own concise abridgment of it, Naqat al-Sadyan fi-man fi Suhbatim Nazar min al-Sahaba wa-Ghayr Dhalik, though Mughaltay's composition was tailored specifically to collecting and examining those individuals over whom disagreement arose .
Structure and Method
The biographical entries in al-Inaba are organized alphabetically according to the names of the subjects . For each individual, Mughaltay compiles the conflicting views of early hadith masters—such as whether a narrator met the Prophet, possessed merely sight of him (ru'ya), or was rather an elder Successor (tabi'i)—and cites the relevant narrative evidence and scholarly statements affirming or rejecting their Companionship .
Reception and Editions
The book served as an important source for subsequent biographical literature on the Companions . Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani drew extensively upon al-Inaba while compiling his biographical dictionary al-Isaba fi Tamyiz al-Sahaba, regularly citing Mughaltay's assessments and noting that he read them directly from Mughaltay's autograph manuscript .
The text has been published in two volumes based on the author's surviving autograph manuscript, edited by a team of researchers at Dar al-Haramayn under the supervision of Muhammad Awad al-Manqush and published by Maktabat al-Rushd in Riyadh in 1420 AH (1999 CE) .
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