Asami al-Duafa - Abu Zuraa al-Razi
- Author died
- 264 AH
- Editions
- t al-Hashimi · t al-Azhari
Asami al-Du‘afa’ (The Names of Weak Narrators) is an early biographical evaluation treatise by the hadith scholar Abu Zur'ah al-Razi (d. 264 AH / 878 CE), documenting unreliable, weak, and abandoned narrators of prophetic traditions.
Transmission and Composition
The work represents Abu Zur'ah al-Razi's compilation of transmitters who were declared weak or criticized by hadith scholars. It has been transmitted through his student, the critic Abu Uthman Sa'id ibn 'Amr al-Bardha'i (d. 292 AH). Al-Bardha'i recorded that when he asked Abu Zur'ah to show him his compilation of impugned narrators, Abu Zur'ah handed over his personal autograph manuscript. Al-Bardha'i transcribed the text directly from Abu Zur'ah's handwriting rather than receiving it via oral audition.
Structure and Content
The entries in the book are organized in alphabetical order according to the Arabic alphabet, beginning with the letter alif. The entries are typically concise, listing each narrator's full name, patronymic, and kunya, frequently identifying their teachers or transmitting students to ensure precise identification. In several biographies, specific critical judgments and explicit terms of disparagement (jarh) are stated alongside the names.
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