Awham al-Muhaddithin al-Thiqat
- Author died
- -
- Editions
- Dar Ibn Hazm
Awham al-Muhaddithin al-Thiqat (The Inadvertent Errors of Trustworthy Hadith Scholars) is a specialized work in hadith criticism and defect analysis ('ilal) by Saeed Bashanfar, examining errors committed by reliable transmitters .
Background and Purpose
Bashanfar conceived the project after observing that classical critics noted the inadvertent errors (awham) of Shu'ba ibn al-Hajjaj primarily occurred in narrators' names . While tracking Shu'ba's mistakes across hadith collections, works of hidden defects ('ilal), commentaries, and biographical dictionaries, he recorded errors by other narrators as well . Influenced by Uthman ibn Sa'id al-Darimi's remark—and al-Dhahabi's reflection on it—that mastering the transmissions of the five major authorities (Shu'ba, Sufyan al-Thawri, Malik ibn Anas, Hammad ibn Zayd, and Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna) encompasses the bulk of prophetic tradition, Bashanfar expanded his inquiry to examine the errors of all trustworthy transmitters found in the collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim .
Bashanfar explains that hadith scholars favored the designation waham (inadvertent error) because it constitutes a milder and more courteous term of critical correction . He emphasizes that the primary purpose of studying these lapses is not to fault the scholars—since no human transmitter is immune to mistake—but rather to determine the nature and impact of each defect ('illa), see whether erroneous legal rulings were derived from them, clear teachers or students who were wrongly blamed for errors made by others, identify the most reliable authorities among differing transmissions, and purge inadvertent mistakes from both chains of transmission (isnad) and texts (matn) .
Structure and Methodology
The work is organized into four distinct sections:
- Prolific Masters (al-A'immah al-Mukthirun): Covers major prolific and meticulous authorities, including Shu'ba, Sufyan al-Thawri, Sufyan ibn 'Uyayna, Malik, Ma'mar ibn Rashid, al-Awza'i, Hammad ibn Salama, Hammad ibn Zayd, Ibn Jurayj, Waki' ibn al-Jarrah, Abd al-Rahman ibn Mahdi, Yahya ibn Sa'id al-Qattan, Abu Mu'awiya al-Darir, and Abd al-Razzaq al-San'ani, appended with Ibn Ishaq and concluding with Abu Dawud al-Tayalisi .
- Agreed-Upon Narrators of the Two Shaykhs: Arranged chronologically by generational classes (tabaqat) following Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani's scheme in Taqrib al-Tahdhib, spanning from the second/third generation through the eleventh class, organized alphabetically within each class .
- Unique Narrators of al-Bukhari and Muslim: Covers transmitters cited individually by either al-Bukhari or Muslim, arranged alphabetically without classification by generation .
- Compilers of the Six Books: Dedicated to inadvertent errors that occurred within the compilations of the authors of the Six Books .
For each transmitter, the author includes a concise biographical profile drawn primarily from Tahdhib al-Kamal, Siyar A'lam al-Nubala', and al-Jarh wa al-Ta'dil before analyzing their transmitted errors through the comparative method of gathering transmission chains .
Publication
The work was published in its first edition in 1436 AH (2015 CE) by Dar Ibn Hazm in Beirut .
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