al-Mutakallimun fi al-Rijal
- Author died
- 902 AH
- Editions
- Dār al-Bashā’ir
al-Mutakallimun fi al-Rijal (Arabic: المتكلمون في الرجال, lit. 'The Authorities Who Spoke on Narrators') is a concise treatise on narrator criticism (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) by the Egyptian hadith scholar and historian Shams al-Din al-Sakhawi (831–902 AH / 1428–1497 CE) .
Origin and Context
The work originated as an abridgment and selection based on al-Dhahabi's treatise Dhikr man Yu'tamad Qawluhu fi al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil (Mention of Those Whose Statements Are Relied Upon in Narrator Criticism) . Whereas al-Dhahabi recorded over 715 scholars up to his own era, al-Sakhawi restricted himself to the most famous authorities in narrator evaluation and continued the coverage down to his contemporaries in the ninth century AH, listing around 210 scholars in total .
Al-Sakhawi incorporated this section in its entirety near the end of his historiographical defense, al-I'lan bi-al-Tawbikh li-man Dhamma Ahl al-Tawarikh (The Open Reproof of Those Who Censure the Historians), and included most of it in his hadith commentary, Fath al-Mughith bi-Sharh Alfiyyat al-Hadith .
Structure and Content
Al-Sakhawi arranged the scholars into 26 successive generational classes (tabaqat), beginning with the Sahaba and continuing through the Successors (Tabi'un) to his own time :
- Early Generations: The opening sections document Companions who denounced false reports, including Umar ibn al-Khattab, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Aisha, and Abd Allah ibn Abbas, followed by prominent Successors such as Ibn Sirin, al-Sha'bi, and Sa'id ibn al-Musayyib . Al-Sakhawi notes that criticism was rare in the first Islamic century because the Companions were all upright ('udul) and the vast majority of their followers were trustworthy (thiqat), with very few weak figures emerging, such as al-Harith al-A'war and al-Mukhtar al-Thaqafi .
- Mid-to-Late Generations: The treatise proceeds through major early critics around the middle of the second century AH—such as Abu Hanifa, al-A'mash, Shu'ba ibn al-Hajjaj, and Malik ibn Anas—to pivotal systematizers like Yahya ibn Ma'in, Ahmad ibn Hanbal, Ali ibn al-Madini, and al-Bukhari .
- Later Authorities: Subsequent tiers cover classical systematizers such as al-Daraqutni, Ibn Abd al-Barr, al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, concluding with contemporaries like Badr al-Din al-Ayni and Burhan al-Din al-Biqa'i .
At the end of the tract, al-Sakhawi observed that earlier critics were generally closer to upright accuracy and further removed from blame than later scholars .
Modern Editions
The treatise was edited and annotated by the Syrian hadith scholar Abd al-Fattah Abu Ghudda, who supplied medium-length biographical entries for all the listed critics and their hadith writings . It was published in Cairo, Lahore, and Beirut, and appeared frequently within Abu Ghudda's compilation Arba' Rasa'il fi 'Ulum al-Hadith (Four Treatises in the Sciences of Hadith), issued by Maktab al-Matbu'at al-Islamiyya in Aleppo and Dar al-Basha'ir al-Islamiyya in Beirut .
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