al-Rawd al-Basim fi Tarajim Shuyukh al-Hakim
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Dār al-‘Āṣimah lil-Nashr wa-al-Tawzī‘
al-Rawd al-Basim fi Tarajim Shuyukh al-Hakim (The Smiling Meadow: Biographies of the Teachers of al-Hakim) is a biographical dictionary of the teachers of the hadith scholar Abu 'Abd Allah al-Hakim al-Naysaburi (321–405 AH / 933–1014 CE), authored by Abu al-Tayyib Nayif ibn Salah ibn 'Ali al-Mansuri.
Background and Scope
The work forms the third installment in al-Mansuri's biographical research series titled Silsilat Taqrib Ruwat al-Sunnah bayna Yaday al-Ummah, following his works on the teachers of al-Tabarani and al-Daraqutni. The book was written to facilitate access to biographical information on fourth-century AH hadith transmitters who served as direct authorities for al-Hakim, many of whom are absent or difficult to locate in earlier standard biographical compendia.
The author compiled al-Hakim's teachers by surveying all of al-Hakim's published writings, including al-Mustadrak 'ala al-Sahihayn, Ma'rifat 'Ulum al-Hadith, al-Madkhal ila Ma'rifat al-Iklil, al-Madkhal ila al-Sahih, Tasmiyat man Akhraja lahum al-Bukhari wa-Muslim, Su'alat al-Sijzi wa-al-Baghdadah, and Su'alatuhu li-Abi al-Hasan al-Daraqutni. In addition, he gathered names from the abridgment of al-Hakim's local chronicle, Mukhtasar Tarikh Naysabur by al-Khalifah al-Naysaburi, specifically the authorities listed at the end of the sixth generation (al-tabaqah al-sadisah) from whom al-Hakim personally heard hadith in Nishapur. He also extracted al-Hakim's teachers documented in 27 writings of his student Abu Bakr al-Bayhaqi, such as al-Sunan al-Kubra, al-Sunan al-Sughra, Shu'ab al-Iman, Dala'il al-Nubuwwah, and Ma'rifat al-Sunan wa-al-Athar.
Structure and Method
The book opens with an extensive biographical monograph on al-Hakim al-Naysaburi, covering his genealogy, birth, upbringing, journeys, teachers, students, theological creed, legal school, judicial office, critical reception, controversies, and death.
The main biographical dictionary is arranged alphabetically by the names of the teachers. Al-Mansuri's methodology includes:
- Listing each narrator's name as it appears in the chains of transmission, cross-referencing entries where a teacher is cited under a truncated patronymic, a grandfather's name, or an erroneous variant.
- Correcting scribal distortions (tashif and tahrif) in names and lineages using external sources, including Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's Ithaf al-Mahrah, parallel chains of transmission, and biographical notices of the teacher's other students and authorities.
- Citing classical assessments of each figure's trustworthiness (ta'dil) or disparagement (jarh).
The biographical entries are accompanied by critical evaluations summarizing the narrator's reliability and status, reviewed and summarized by Abu al-Hasan Mustafa ibn Isma'il al-Sulaymani.
Publication and Reception
The book received introductory forewords from the hadith scholars Sa'd ibn 'Abdullah al-Humayyid, Hasan Muhammad Maqbuli al-Ahdal, and Abu al-Hasan al-Sulaymani, who commended its systematic compilation of obscure fourth-century transmitters and its documentation of biographical sources.
The work was published in two volumes by Dar al-'Asimah in Riyadh (first edition, 1431–1432 AH / 2011 CE).
Answer updated