al-Tarikh lil-Falasifa
- Author died
- 249 AH
- Editions
- King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies
al-Tarikh (Arabic: كتاب التاريخ, lit. 'The Book of History'), also known as Tarikh 'Amr ibn 'Ali, is an early 3rd-century AH work of biographical evaluation and narrator chronology by the Basran hadith critic and scholar Abu Hafs 'Amr ibn 'Ali al-Fallas (d. 249 AH / 863 CE) .
Composition and Scope
The work was composed during the first half of the third century AH . The historical chronology in its opening section extends to the early Abbasid period, while the biographical notices record narrator death dates up through teachers of the author such as Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi (d. 204 AH) and Abu Asim al-Nabil (d. 212 AH) . The text was established in its received form prior to the journey of the Andalusian transmitter Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Salam al-Khushani to Basra before 240 AH .
The book focuses on the critical verification of hadith transmitters (rijal), documenting their lineages, kunyas, places of residence, chronological order of deaths, and critical assessments (al-jarh wa-l-ta'dil) . It preserved unique identifications and disambiguations of early transmitters not found in other biographical compendia .
Transmission
The work was transmitted through multiple geographical paths:
- Andalusian and Western transmission: Transmitted directly from al-Fallas by Muhammad ibn 'Abd al-Salam al-Khushani and 'Abd Allah ibn Masarra to Qasim ibn Asbagh in a three-part recension . Another transmission reached Ibn Abd al-Barr through Khalaf ibn al-Qasim from Hamza ibn Muhammad al-Kinani from Abu Yazid Khalid ibn al-Nadr al-Qurashi from al-Fallas in a two-part version without the critical defects section (al-'Ilal) .
- Eastern transmission: Transmitted by figures such as Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Shahryar and Muhammad ibn al-Husayn al-Qattan . An eastern transmission line was preserved through Abu Bakr ibn Shahryar to Abu al-Walid al-Baji, and later documented by Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Rudani in Silat al-khalaf .
Reception and Influence
Al-Daraqutni commended al-Fallas as an exact authority (imam mutqin) and highlighted his authorship of al-Tarikh alongside his al-Musnad and al-'Ilal . The book served as an early source for subsequent hadith scholars and historians. Muhammad ibn Isma'il al-Bukhari cited its material in al-Tarikh al-Kabir and al-Tarikh al-Awsat . Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi transmitted and quoted extensive passages from it in Damascus . It was also cited by Ibn al-Faradi, al-Baji in al-Ta'dil wa-l-tajrih, Shams al-Din al-Dhahabi, Ala' al-Din Mughaltay, and Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani .
Publication
The surviving text of al-Tarikh was edited by Muhammad al-Tabarani and published in Riyadh by the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in 2015 .
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