Dhikr al-Mudallisin
- Author died
- 303 AH
- Editions
- Dār ʿĀlam al-Fawāʾid
Dhikr al-Mudallisin (Mention of the Practitioners of Tadlīs) is a concise hadith tract compiling the names of narrators characterized by tadlīs (obscuring an immediate transmitter in an isnād to give the impression of direct reception) by the hadith critic Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Nasa'i (d. 303 AH / 915 CE) .
Historical Context
The work represents one of the earliest dedicated compilations on practitioners of tadlīs in hadith literature . As noted by Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani, early scholars who authored separate monographs listing mudallisūn began with al-Husayn ibn Ali al-Karabisi, followed by al-Nasa'i, and subsequently al-Daraqutni . While earlier figures such as Ahmad ibn Hanbal had disapproved of al-Karabisi's compilation due to its perceived fault-finding regarding prominent authorities, later hadith scholars—including Ali ibn al-Madini, al-Nasa'i, al-Daraqutni, and al-Khatib al-Baghdadi—dedicated treatises to this subject to preserve the integrity of the prophetic transmission while defending sound narrations .
Transmission and Content
The text has been preserved through the transmission of Abu al-Hasan al-Daraqutni, who recorded it from the handwriting of Abu Bakr al-Haddad on the authority of al-Nasa'i, and it was documented by Abu Abd al-Rahman al-Sulami in his Suʾālāt .
The tract provides a concise listing of major early transmitters whom al-Nasa'i categorized as practitioners of tadlīs :
- al-Hasan al-Basri
- Qatadah
- Humayd al-Tawil
- Yahya ibn Abi Kathir
- Sulayman al-Taymi
- Yunus ibn Ubayd
- Sa'id ibn Abi Arubah
- Hushaym ibn Bashir
- Abu Ishaq al-Sabi'i
- Isma'il ibn Abi Khalid
- al-Hakam ibn Utaybah
- al-Hajjaj ibn Artah
- Mughirah ibn Miqsam
- Sufyan al-Thawri
- Abu al-Zubayr al-Makki
- Ibn Abi Najih
- Ibn Jurayj
- Sufyan ibn Uyaynah
Ibn Hajar noted that al-Nasa'i described four additional transmitters elsewhere as having engaged in tadlīs who were not included in this tract: Sulayman ibn Mihran al-A'mash, Abbad ibn Mansur al-Naji, Maymun ibn Musa al-Mar'i, and Yahya ibn Abi Hayyah al-Kalbi .
Publication
The tract was edited by Hatim ibn Arif al-Awni and published in Makkah by Dar Alam al-Fawa'id (1423 AH) alongside another short work of the author, Tasmiyat Mashayikh Abi Abd al-Rahman al-Nasa'i .
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