Amali al-Baghandi
- Author died
- 283 AH
- Editions
- Mu’assasat Qurṭubah
Amali al-Baghandi (Amālī al-Bāghandī) is a collection of hadith dictation sessions transmitted from the Iraqi hadith scholar Abu Bakr al-Baghandi al-Kabir (d. 283 AH / 896 CE) .
Author and Context
The author was Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sulayman ibn al-Harith ibn 'Abd al-Rahman al-Azdi al-Wasiti, commonly known as al-Baghandi al-Kabir ("the Elder al-Baghandi"), to distinguish him from his son, the prominent hadith master Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Baghandi (d. 312 AH) . Originally connected to the region of Wasit, he settled in Baghdad, where he taught and dictated hadith .
Al-Baghandi transmitted from teachers such as Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah al-Ansari, 'Ubayd Allah ibn Musa, Thabit ibn Muhammad al-Zahid, Khallad ibn Yahya, Abu Mansur al-Harith ibn Mansur, Abu Nu'aym al-Fadl ibn Dukayn, Qabisah ibn 'Uqbah, Abu Ghassan Malik ibn Isma'il, 'Arim al-Fadl ibn Dukayn, and Abu al-Walid al-Tayalisi . Those who narrated from him included his son Muhammad, al-Husayn ibn Isma'il al-Mahamili, Isma'il ibn Muhammad al-Saffar, Abu 'Amr ibn al-Sammak, Abu Bakr al-Najad, Abu Bakr al-Shafi'i, Muhammad ibn al-Hasan ibn Miqsam, 'Abd al-Khaliq ibn Abi Ruba al-Saqati, and 'Abd Allah ibn Ishaq al-Baghawi . Abu Ja'far al-Arzanani reported having seen Abu Dawud al-Sijistani kneeling before al-Baghandi to ask him about hadith .
Scholarly evaluations of al-Baghandi varied: al-Daraqutni stated there was no harm in him (lā ba'sa bih), and Maslama ibn Qasim described him as trustworthy and authoritative (thiqah thabt) . In contrast, Abu al-Fath ibn Abi al-Fawaris deemed him weak in hadith (da'īf al-hadīth), though al-Khatib al-Baghdadi observed that although he was mentioned with weakness, all of his narrations appeared sound and free of objectionable (munkar) reports . Al-Baghandi died in Dhu al-Hijjah 283 AH (with one report by Ahmad ibn Kamil giving 284 AH, though 283 AH was deemed more accurate) .
Content and Transmission
Amali al-Baghandi belongs to the hadith genre of amālī (dictation sessions), recording individual sessions wherein the scholar dictated prophetic traditions and accompanying chains of narration (isnāds) to his students . Among the traditions transmitted through the text is the report narrated via Qutba ibn al-'Ala' al-Ghanawi from his father, from Hisham ibn 'Urwa, from 'Urwa ibn al-Zubayr, from 'A'ishah, that the Prophet ﷺ said: مَن التمسَ مَحامِدَ الناسِ بمَعاصي اللهِ عادَ حامِدُه له ذَامًّا ("Whoever seeks the praise of people through disobedience to God, their praiser will turn into their blamer") .
The primary preserved transmission of the text was transmitted from al-Baghandi by his student Abu Muhammad 'Abd al-Khaliq ibn al-Hasan ibn Abi Ruba al-Saqati al-Shahid . Later hadith bibliographers, including Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani and al-Suyuti, documented the transmission through an isnād running from 'Abd al-Khaliq ibn Abi Ruba to Abu 'Ali al-Hasan ibn Ahmad ibn Shadhan, to Abu Ghalib Muhammad ibn al-Hasan al-Baqillani, to Abu Tahir al-Silafi, to Ja'far ibn 'Ali, to Sulayman ibn Hamza, to Fatima bint al-Munajja . Ibn Hajar described the transmitted text as a booklet containing eight sessions, of which six were heard (al-masmū' minhu sittat majālis) .
Manuscripts and Printed Editions
An early manuscript copy of Amali al-Baghandi is preserved in Cairo at the Taymuriyya Library (MS 150), carrying an audition certificate (samā') dated to 700 AH .
The work has been published in modern editions:
- An edition edited by Ashraf Salah 'Ali, published by Mu'assasat Qurtubah in 1417 AH / 1997 CE .
- An edition titled Sittat Majalis min Amali Abi Bakr Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Baghandi ("Six Sessions from the Dictations of Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Sulayman al-Baghandi"), edited by Muhammad Ziyad 'Umar Tiklah, published as part of the compendium Jamharat al-Ajza' al-Hadithiyyah by Maktabat al-'Ubaykan in Riyadh (1421 AH / 2001 CE) .
Answer updated