Fadail Sunan al-Tirmidhi
- Author died
- 692 AH
- Editions
- ‘Ālam al-Kutub
Faḍāʾil Sunan al-Tirmidhī (Arabic: فضائل سنن الترمذي, also titled Faḍāʾil al-Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ li-Abī ʿĪsā al-Tirmidhī), authored by the hadith scholar Abu al-Qasim al-Is'ardi (Ubayd ibn Muhammad, d. 692 AH / 1293 CE), is a specialized hadith treatise on the merits, transmission history, methodology, and narrator chains of the Jāmiʿ of Abu Isa al-Tirmidhi .
Purpose and Scope
In the introduction, al-Is'ardi explains that he compiled the work to document the virtues of al-Tirmidhi's Jāmiʿ, elucidate its lines of transmission (ṭuruq), specify its author's death date, explain his methodological criteria (sharṭ), and identify the transmitters who preserved and related the book through successive generations .
Contents and Structure
The treatise brings together biographical reports, critical evaluations, and chains of transmission concerning al-Tirmidhi and his collection:
- Merits and Reception: Al-Is'ardi cites al-Tirmidhi's statement that after compiling his work, he presented it to the scholars of the Hijaz, Iraq, and Khurasan, all of whom approved of it, adding that whoever has this book in their home is as if they have a prophet speaking in their home . He also records the assessment of Abu Ismail al-Ansari of Herat, who regarded al-Tirmidhi's book as more accessible and useful to scholars and jurists than the collections of al-Bukhari and Muslim because al-Tirmidhi elucidated and commented on the legal and critical implications of his hadiths .
- Methodology and Conditions: The work includes analytical discussions of al-Tirmidhi's methods, quoting Ibn al-Qaysarani regarding the four categories of hadiths in the Jāmiʿ and citing Abu Bakr al-Hazimi's analysis of narrator tiers (ṭabaqāt) and the comparative conditions of the canonical hadith compilers .
- Biographical Notes: Al-Is'ardi records al-Tirmidhi's ancestry, early memorization, and death date, adopting the position that al-Tirmidhi died on Monday night, 13 Rajab 279 AH, and noting the variant report cited by Abu Ya'la al-Khalili (that he died after 280 AH) as incorrect .
- Narrators and Lines of Transmission: A major portion of the treatise traces the principal transmission line of the Jāmiʿ via al-Tirmidhi's student Abu al-Abbas al-Mahbubi (d. 346 AH), down to Abu Muhammad Abd al-Jabbar al-Jarrahi (d. 410 AH) . It documents the four scholars who transmitted it from al-Jarrahi in Herat—Qadi Abu Amir al-Azdi (d. 487 AH), Abu Bakr al-Ghurji (d. 481 AH), Abd al-Aziz al-Tiryaqi (d. 483 AH), and Abu al-Muzaffar ibn Yasin al-Dahhan—and details how Abu al-Fath al-Karukhi (d. 548 AH) heard the book from all four before disseminating it in Baghdad and Mecca . Al-Is'ardi then documents his own transmission from al-Karukhi through Ali ibn Abi al-Karam ibn al-Banna al-Makki, Abu al-Qasim al-Husayn ibn Sasra al-Dimashqi, and Umar ibn Karam al-Dinawari .
- Poetry: The book concludes with poetic eulogies in praise of al-Tirmidhi's Jāmiʿ, including verses by Abu al-Abbas al-Iqlishi and an extended poem composed at the author's request by his teacher, the hadith scholar Qutb al-Din al-Qastallani .
Editions
The work was edited by Subhi al-Samarra'i and published under the title Faḍāʾil al-Kitāb al-Jāmiʿ by Alam al-Kutub in Beirut in 1409 AH (1988/1989 CE) .
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